Hastings Center News
Remembering Tom Beauchamp
On behalf of the board and staff of The Hastings Center, we mourn the loss of Tom Beauchamp III, a towering figure in the field of bioethics, who passed away on February 19th. Tom, a Hastings Center Fellow, was professor of philosophy at Georgetown University and a senior research scholar (retired) at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.
Among his many achievements, Tom was on the staff of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research that wrote the landmark Belmont Report, published in 1978, which identified basic ethical principles and guidelines that address ethical issues in the conduct of research with human subjects. The following year, Tom and James Childress published Principles of Biomedical Ethics, the first major American bioethics textbook. The book is a bestseller and a classic, now in its eighth edition. Indeed, it transformed the field.
In addition to human subjects research, Tom’s wide-ranging research interests included the place of universal principles and rights in biomedical ethics, methods of bioethics, Hume and the history of modern philosophy, animal research ethics, and business ethics. He is author or editor of many other books, including (with George G. Brenkert) The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics(2009), (with R.G. Frey) The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Animals (2011), Standing on Principles: Collected Essays (2011), and (with Ruth Faden) A History and Theory of Informed Consent (1986).
Tom received numerous awards. He was elected a Hastings Center Fellow and received The Hastings Center’s Bioethics Founders’ Award (formerly the Henry Knowles Beecher Award) in 2010 for a lifetime of contributions to research ethics and other areas of bioethics. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Research Ethics by Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) in 2011 and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) in 2004.
Beyond all the accolades, Tom was a nice guy whose humility endeared him to his students and colleagues. He was generous with his knowledge, ever wise, and accessible. He lived by the principles that motivated his scholarship.
Tom Beauchamp was born in Austin, Texas, on December 2,1939. He received his BA from Southern Methodist University and graduate degrees from Yale University and Johns Hopkins University, from which he received a PhD.
Tom is survived by his wife, Ruth R. Faden, PhD, MPH, the founder of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and also a Hastings Center Fellow; his daughter, Karine (Richard Fiore) Faden Fiore; his son Zachary (Katelyn Esmonde) Beauchamp; and his grandchildren Samuel Fiore, Mateo Gurria, Alex Fiore, Anna Gurria, Eleanor Esmonde Beauchamp, and Daveed Esmonde Beauchamp. We extend our condolences to his entire family. All of bioethics shares your loss.
Vardit Ravitsky, PhD, President
Joseph J. Fins, MD, Chair, Board of Trustees
[Photo: from left, Ruth Faden, Tom Beauchamp, and Daniel Callahan]
