U.VA. PROFESSOR NAMED TO NEW NATIONAL PANEL ON BIOMEDICAL ETHICS
James Childress One Of 15 Appointed

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., July 25 -- James F. Childress, a
professor of religious studies and medical education at the
University of Virginia, is one of 15 experts on biomedical ethics
recently named to a national advisory panel by President Clinton.
	The newly formed National Bioethics Advisory Commission has
been charged with exploring ethical issues raised by experiments in
human biology and behavior.  In particular, the commission, headed
by Princeton University President Harold T. Shapiro, will consider
how best to protect the rights, dignity and welfare of human
subjects of medical research.  It also will review methods of
maintaining genetic information so as to protect people's privacy.
	The group also will advise the White House's National
Science and Technology Council on issues of biomedical ethics it
deems to be of concern.
	Childress, 55, is a nationally recognized authority on
medical ethics who has written extensively on various aspects of the
field, particularly euthanasia and access to health care.
	He is the Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Religious Studies and
Professor of Medical Education at U.Va. and received a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 1984-85, the same year the U.Va. Alumni Association
recognized him with its distinguished professor award.
	Childress joined the faculty as assistant professor in 1968
and taught in Charlottesville for seven years, before moving to
Georgetown University in 1975 as the Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Professor
of Christian Ethics.  He returned to U.Va. in 1979.
	Childress also has served on the faculties of the University
of Chicago Divinity School, Princeton University and the Columbia
University College of Physicians and Surgeons.  A cum laude graduate
of the Yale University Divinity School, with a doctorate from Yale
in religious studies, Childress is a fellow of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences.
	Childress can be reached at the office at (804) 924-6724 and
at home at (804) 977-3060.  His e-mail address is
jfc7c@virginia.edu.  Television reporters should contact our TV News
Office at (804) 924-7550.
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July 24, 1996