John D. Arras, Ph.D.
(Northwestern University)
Porterfield Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Professor of Philosophy.
Director of Bioethics Minor Program,
UVA Alumni Association Distinguished Professor, 2005.
524 Cabell Hall.
804-924-7863
jda3a @Virginia.edu

Photo by Jack Mellott

John Arras directs the Undergraduate Program in Bioethics and serves as faculty adviser to the student-run Bioethics Society. He is also affiliated with the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the Medical School.

His current courses include: "Justice and Health Care," "Reproductive Ethics," "Research Ethics," and "Global Justice, Health, and Human Rights." His most recent research interests include: death and dying, assisted suicide, public health ethics, research on human subjects, international research ethics, theories of global justice and the social determinants of health, and methods of ethics. He is currently completing a long-gestating book (tentative title: "Curb Your Enthusiasm: Skeptical Reflections on Method in Bioethics").

The author of scores of articles in bioethics, Arras is also co-editor of Ethical and Regulatory Aspects of Human Subjects Research (Hopkins , 2003); Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine,
7 th ed. (McGraw-Hill, 2008); and Bringing the Hospital Home (Hopkins , 1995).

Professor Arras is a longtime Fellow and Board member of the Hastings Center , the nation's preeminent research institute in bioethics. He also consults regularly at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda , MD , and serves as a member of the ethics advisory board of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. He currently serves as a member of President Obama's Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues www.bioethics.gov

Prior to his move to UVA in 1995, Arras was for 14 years Associate Professor of Bioethics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Montefiore Medical Center, and adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy at Barnard College/Columbia University. During those years he also served as a member of former Governor Mario Cuomo's New York State Task Force on Life and the Law.