
Thomas Murray
Ph.D.
President Emeritus
Thomas H. Murray was president of The Hastings Center from 1999 to 2012. He was formerly the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, where he was also the Susan E. Watson Professor of Bioethics. He serves on many editorial boards and has testified before many Congressional committees. Among other current posts, he serves as an international expert advisor to Singapore’s Bioethics Advisory Committee and vice chair of Charity Navigator. He has been president of the Society for Health and Human Values and of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.
Dr. Murray is the author or editor of several books and more than 250 other publications. His most recent book is Good Sport: Why Our Games Matter — and How Doping Undermines Them, published in 2018. His other publications include The Worth of a Child; The Cultures of Caregiving: Conflict and Common Ground Among Families, Health Professionals and Policy Makers, edited with Carol Levine; Genetic Ties and the Family: The Impact of Paternity Testing on Parents and Children, edited with Mark A. Rothstein, Gregory E. Kaebnick, and Mary Anderlik Majumder; Performance-Enhancing Technologies in Sports: Ethical, Conceptual, and Scientific Issues, edited with Karen J. Maschke and Angela A. Wasunna; and, most recently, Trust and Integrity in Biomedical Research: The Case of Financial Conflicts of Interest, edited with Josephine Johnston. He is also editor, with Maxwell J. Mehlman, of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology. In 2004 he received an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from Uppsala University.
Selected Scholarly Publications
Thomas H. Murray, “Stirring the Simmering ‘Designer Baby’ Pot,” Science, March 14, 2014.
Thomas H. Murray, “Enhancement,” in The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics, Bonnie Steinbock (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2007.
Loland, S. and Thomas H. Murray., “The Ethics of the Use of Technologically Constructed High-Altitude Environments to Enhance Performances in Sport,” editorial, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 2007; 17: 193-195.
Nancy S. Green, Siobhan M. Dolan, and Thomas H. Murray, “Newborn Screening: Complexities in Universal Genetic Testing,” American Journal of Public Health, November 2006.
Jeffrey R. Botkin, Ellen, W. Clayton, Norman Fost, Wiley Burke, Thomas H. Murray, Mary Ann Baily, Benjamin Wilfond, Alfred Berg, and Lainie F. Ross, “Newborn Screening Technology: Proceed with Caution,” Pediatrics, May 2006.
Posts by Thomas Murray
- Bioethics Forum Essay
What I Learned from Dan Callahan About Bioethics, Writing, and Leadership
Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Doping, Corruption, and International Intrigue: Olympic Sport Confronts a Moral Crisis
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayI suspected the two alibi witnesses were lying. The accused in the case, Alexei Melnikov, coached long distance walkers and runners for ARAF, the All-Russia Athletic Federation. Lilya Shobukova and her husband testified that they handed over 150,000 Euros in blackmail money to Melnikov in Moscow in J...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Morally Indefensible Health Care Bills
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayThere is a broad and deep moral conviction that health care should be distributed according to genuine need and not left to the cold mercy of pure market forces or the logic of actuarial fairness. Unfortunately, the proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA), passed last week in the House of Representatives, and other legislation threaten to undermine that moral commitment.Read the Post - From Bioethics Briefings
Sports Enhancement
Read the PostFrom Bioethics BriefingsFraming the Issue Spring in America brings flowers, sweet warm breezes, and the thwack of a bat striking a baseball. The Mitchell Report, an early Christmas present to baseball fans released in December 2007, confirmed that a number of Major League players have used performance-enhancing drugs. Swing...Read the Post - From Bioethics Briefings
Why a Bioethics Briefing Book?
Read the PostFrom Bioethics BriefingsI arrived at The Hastings Center for my first tour of duty in the fall of 1979, and it did not take long to realize that the Center was working on matters vitally important to everyone. Some issues, like genetic testing or the ethics of performance enhancing drugs in sports, required peering over the...Read the Post
Related Posts
Resources: Art of Flourishing Public Events Series
Read the Post- Bioethics Forum Essay
Is GINA Unjust?
Read the Post - In the Media
Hastings President Emeritus on Caster Semenya, Testosterone, and Fairness in Sports
Read the PostIn the MediaA Washington Post article on the ethics of the recent ruling on testosterone levels in women's sports quotes Hastings Center President Emeritus Thomas Murray and cites his book: “Good Sport: Why Our Games Matter — And How Doping Undermines Them.” Says Murray about the case: “You’re balancing considerations that just don’t afford an easy solution.”"Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Stanley S. Bergen, Jr., Remembered
Read the PostHastings Center NewsHastings Center president Mildred Solomon and the board of directors are saddened by the passing of Stanley S. Bergen, Jr., a member of the Center’s board of directors from 1985 to 2004; he was board chair for the last six years of his term. He died peacefully at home in Maine on April 24.Read the Post - Hastings Center News
What’s Actually Wrong with Sports Doping?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWhat’s actually wrong with doping—if all athletes had access to the same performance-enhancing drugs, wouldn’t that make competitions fair? If the purpose of sport is to maximize performance, shouldn’t we welcome technologies that do that? How should the values that give our lives mean...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
The Hastings Center at 50: Looking Back and Ahead
Read the Post PRESS RELEASE: 03.24.11 Thomas H. Murray to Step Down as President of The Hastings Center
Read the Post(Garrison, NY) Thomas H. Murray, president and CEO of The Hastings Center, announced that he will step down in 2012 from his leadership role at the bioethics research institution. Murray, who has been president for 12 years, will continue his work on Hastings Center research projects and remain a Ha...Read the PostMEDIA ADVISORY: 07.26.12 Bioethicist Tom Murray available to discuss doping, fairness, and other ethical issues in sport as Olympics approach
Read the Post(Garrison, NY) With the Olympics beginning on July 27, attention is focused on the world’s top athletes, as well as ethical issues surrounding the use of performance-enhancing drugs and other technologies. Thomas H. Murray, senior research scholar and President Emeritus of The Hastings Center a...Read the Post