The Hastings Center’s Henry Knowles Beecher Award recognizes individuals who have made a lifetime contribution to ethics and the life sciences and whose careers have been devoted to excellence in scholarship, research, and ethical inquiry.  Recipients are nominated by a committee of Hastings Center Fellows. The award is named after the first recipient, the late Henry Knowles Beecher, MD, a distinguished physician in the field of anesthesiology who, in the 1960’s, courageously shed light on ethically questionable practices in human subjects research. By those actions, Dr. Beecher helped give birth to the field of bioethics and became one of its pioneers. After receiving the Beecher Award recipients customarily deliver a public lecture. Recent Beecher Award lectures can be viewed on our YouTube channel. 

Recipients of the Henry Knowles Beecher Award

Ruth Faden, PhD, MPH, 2019

Dan W. Brock, PhD, 2018

Albert Jonsen, PhD, and Edward Frank Shotter, 2017

Leon R. Kass, MD, PhD, 2016

Renee C. Fox, PhD, 2015

Ruth Macklin, PhD, 2014

Robert M. Veatch, PhD, 2013

Thomas H. Murray, PhD, 2012

Solomon R. Benatar, MBChB, DSc (Med) and Ren-Zong Qiu, 2011

Tom L. Beauchamp, PhD and James F. Childress, PhD, 2010

Alexander M. Capron, LLB, 2009

Joanne Lynn, MD, MS, MA,  2008

Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD, MACP, 2003

Alastair V. Campbell, MA, BD, ThD, 1999

Raanan Gillon, MB, BS, FRCP, 1999

Danner Clouser, PhD, 1996

Sissela Bok, PhD, 1996

Jay Katz, MD, 1993

Daniel Callahan, PhD, 1989

Willard Gaylin, MD, 1989

Richard A. McCormick, SJ, 1988

Robert S. Morison, MD, 1984

Paul Ramsey, PhD, 1981

Joseph Fletcher, STD, 1981

Hans Jonas, PhD, 1978

Henry Knowles Beecher, MD, 1976