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Prof. Arthur Caplan


Self Description

January 2006: "Currently, the Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and the Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Prior to coming to Penn in 1994, Caplan taught at the University of Minnesota, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia University. He was the Associate Director of the Hastings Center from 1984-1987.

Born in Boston, Caplan did his undergraduate work at Brandeis University, and did his graduate work at Columbia University where he received a Ph.D in the history and philosophy of science in 1979.

Caplan is the author or editor of twenty-five books and over 500 papers in refereed journals of medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics and health policy...

He writes a regular column on bioethics for MSNBC.com. He is a frequent guest and commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and many other media outlets.

He has served on a number of national and international committees including as the Chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning, the Chair of the Advisory Committee to the Department of Health and Human Services on Blood Safety and Availability, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, the special advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee on genetics and gene therapy, the American Chemistry Council and the special advisory panel to the National Institutes of Mental Health on human experimentation on vulnerable subjects. He is a member of Dupont's biotechnology advisory panel and has consulted with many corporations and consumer organizations.

Caplan is the recipient of many awards and honors including the McGovern Medal of the American Medical Writers Association, Person of the Year-2001 from USA Today, one of the fifty most influential people in American health care by Modern Health Care magazine and one of the ten most influential people in America in biotechnology by the National Journal. He holds six honorary degrees from colleges and medical schools. He is a fellow of the Hastings Center, the NY Academy of Medicine, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the American Association for the Advancement of Science."

http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu/people/?last=Caplan&first=Arthur

Third-Party Descriptions

March 2008: 'The list of patients waiting for organ transplants, which is widely used to promote organ donations, includes thousands who are ineligible for the operations...."This raises the question about whether the transplant centers are doing their jobs," Caplan said. "If I've been on the inactive list for two years, my question is, 'What has been done to either get me on the active list or take me off the list?' "'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102981.html

April 2007: The case, and the Texas law, have divided medical ethicists. Art Caplan, an ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, supports the Texas law giving the hospital the right to make life or death decisions even if the family disagrees. 'There are occasions when family members just don't get it right,' he said. 'No parent should have the right to cause suffering to a kid in a futile situation.'

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/04/25/baby.emilio/index.html

April 2007: 'There are lots of efforts to bridge the growing gap between demand and supply,' said Arthur L. Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist. 'We have to be very careful that we don't make people think that we don't have their best interests in mind and are just going to use them to get their body parts.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040302062.html

July 2006: In deciding whether a child or parents can refuse medical treatment, courts consider the child's age and maturity and the family's reasoning in declining treatment, but also whether the treatment has been shown to work and whether the child has already had the treatment, says Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-07-11-herbal-remedy_x.htm

July 2006: 'This case has much bigger significance than just becoming a battle about euthanasia,' says Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. 'It's about what we're going to expect doctors to do in [a pandemic of] avian flu. It's about what we're going to expect nurses to do in the face of bioterror .... It has to do with professional duty, professional responsibility, and what we expect healthcare workers to do in the toughest of circumstances.'

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0721/p01s02-ussc.html

January 2006: But even if the payments are within the law - and Medtronic has not been found guilty of any illegal activity - the increasing amounts being given to doctors distort their judgment, said Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, who said such industry payments were 'too damn lucrative to believe anyone can resist.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/business/24device.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) American Chemistry Council, Inc. (ACC) Organization Jan 25, 2006
Student/Trainee (past or present) Brandeis University Organization Jan 25, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Center for Bioethics Organization Aug 11, 2006
Student/Trainee (past or present) Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Columbia University Organization Jan 25, 2006
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Organization Jan 25, 2006
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) International Olympic Committee (IOC) Organization Jan 25, 2006
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) MSNBC Source Oct 2, 2003
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Organization Jan 25, 2006
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) United Nations, The (UN) Organization Jan 25, 2006
Student/Trainee (past or present) University of Minnesota Organization Jan 25, 2006
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) University of Pennsylvania, The ("Penn") Organization Jan 25, 2006
Student/Trainee (past or present) University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Organization Jan 25, 2006

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Mar 22, 2008 A Third of Patients On Transplant List Are Not Eligible

QUOTE: Although the need for organs far outpaces the supply, critics say the large number of inactive patients on the list may signal that potential recipients are languishing in limbo too long and that including them could mislead potential donors, recipients and policymakers about the magnitude of the need.

 Washington Post
Apr 25, 2007 Fight over baby's life divides ethicists

QUOTE: The law, signed in 1999 by then-Gov. George W. Bush, gives Texas hospitals the authority to stop treatment if doctors say the treatment is "inappropriate" -- even if the family wants the medical care to continue. The statute was inspired by a growing debate in medical and legal communities over when to declare medical treatment futile.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Apr 04, 2007 States Revising Organ-Donation Law: Critics Fear Measure May Not Go Far Enough to Protect Donors

QUOTE: The revised model law is the latest in a series of initiatives by transplant advocates to boost the number of organs available for the more than 95,000 Americans on waiting lists. Organ banks have also been aggressively promoting a controversial practice that allows surgeons to take organs from patients who are not brain dead, more than doubling the number of such donations in the past three years.

 Washington Post
Apr 02, 2007 Unapproved drugs spark life-and-death debate

QUOTE: Frustrated with the cumbersome process for obtaining experimental drugs — which requires dealing with the FDA bureaucracy as well as drugmakers and research institutions — a patient advocacy group has taken the FDA to court. The group argues that mentally competent terminally ill patients have a right to get such drugs.

 USA TODAY
Jan 14, 2007 MY DOCTOR THE LOBBYIST

QUOTE: It is not legal for a doctor to pass along patient information to political activists .... If you profit directly from someone's work, you have an ethical obligation to pay that person even when the law does not compel it.
Aug 11, 2006 Teen battles state over cancer treatment

QUOTE: Starchild Abraham Cherrix, a 16-year-old suffering from Hodgkin's disease, has refused chemotherapy and radiation treatments ordered by his oncologist...government lawyers will accuse his parents, who support Abraham's herbal treatment, of medical neglect.

 CourtTV.com
Jul 21, 2006 New Orleans arrests spark 'mercy killing' debate

QUOTE: Days after hurricane Katrina hit...a doctor and two nurses administered lethal doses of drugs to four elderly patients they claimed might not survive an evacuation. The three were arrested Monday, then released, pending formal charges.

 Christian Science Monitor
Jul 11, 2006 Virginia teen fights for right to pick Hodgkin's treatment

QUOTE: The agency asked the court to order the boy to undergo chemotherapy...Abraham argues that he is old enough to make decisions about treatment to save his life.

 USA TODAY
Jan 24, 2006 Whistle-Blower Suit Says Device Maker Generously Rewards Doctors

QUOTE: These doctors work in a growing field, complex back surgery, and this makes them particularly valuable to the spinal-implant division of Medtronic. In recent years, the company has spent tens of millions of dollars on consulting contracts and other types of payments to them and numerous other prominent surgeons, according to papers filed as part of a whistle-blower lawsuit. The suit contends that some of these payments were made to attract or retain the doctors' business.

 New York Times
Sep 09, 2005 Bioethics Council Head to Step Down

QUOTE: ...Kass's history of opposition to some reproductive technologies and his general wariness of other biomedical trends, such as efforts to forestall aging, made him a thorn in the side of many researchers and liberal thinkers. In February 2004, he came under intense fire for his role in the dismissal of two council members with liberal views on embryonic stem cell research.

 Washington Post
Aug 07, 2005 Drug researchers leak secrets to Wall St.

QUOTE: Those who know in advance whether a drug is going to succeed or fail can buy stock low or sell it high to those who don't know...there is a broader cost to society: Leaking details about ongoing research can introduce bias into drug trials and possibly halt development of potentially life-saving drugs, biotech executives said.

 Seattle Times
Mar 10, 2005 When Torment Is Baby's Destiny, Euthanasia Is Defended

QUOTE: Babies born into what is certain to be a brief life of grievous suffering should have their lives ended by physicians under strict guidelines, according to two doctors in the Netherlands.

 New York Times
Sep 21, 2004 Insuring Controversy: When Malpractice Premiums Jump, Some Docs Ask Patients to 'Donate' to the Cause

QUOTE: "Physicians are getting crushed by the combination of malpractice cost shocks and declining reimbursement...As a result, there is great interest in surcharges or access fees."

 Washington Post
Aug 25, 2004 Cutting in line for organ transplants: Texas man's efforts to get liver undermine system

QUOTE: One might argue that the system worked and a young man’s life was saved. Except that in this case, the system did not work — the fact that Krampitz received a liver is unethical because he got his by cutting in line.

 MSNBC
May 11, 2004 In Ohio, Supreme Court Considers Right to Procreate

QUOTE: Judge James L. Kimbler ordered the 32-year-old Akron resident to take "reasonable efforts" not to get anyone pregnant for five years -- or go to jail.

 Washington Post
Jan 12, 2004 Some see fluorescent fish as neon signs of trouble

QUOTE: Frankenfish or a harmless example of a genetically engineered animal? The GloFish is selling briskly but could this tiny creature represent a potential threat to public health and safety?

 Chicago Tribune
Jun 24, 2003 The problem with 'embryo adoption': Why is the government giving money to Snowflakes?

QUOTE: So what's the big deal about a religious group that believes all embryos are children and is trying to find them "adoptive" parents among infertile couples using IVF? Well, actually there is a lot that is wrong.

 MSNBC
Nov 01, 2002 DNA as Destiny

QUOTE: No federal laws exist to protect us from genism, or from insurers and employers finding out our genetic secrets. "Right now you're likely going to be more disadvantaged than empowered by genetic testing".

 Wired