In-person For Students

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School invites you to a lunch discussion with Dr. Daniel Sulmasy on Thursday, February 29 at the Trent Semans Center, room 4067.

Dr. Sulmasy is a general internist and philosopher. He is Professor and Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. His work focuses on the ethics of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education, and spirituality in medicine.

This event is intended for undergraduate and graduate students. Faculty are also welcome to attend. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by February 23.

Sponsored by the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School and co-sponsored by the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine, the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and the Purpose Project at Duke.

Speaker Bio

Daniel Sulmasy, M.D., Ph.D., MACP, is a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and on the faculty of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. He is the inaugural Andre Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics, with co-appointments in the Departments of Philosophy and Medicine at Georgetown University.

His research interests encompass both theoretical and empirical investigations of the ethics of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education, and spirituality in medicine. He has done extensive work on the role of intention in medical action, especially as it relates to the rule of double effect and the distinction between killing and allowing to die. He is also interested in the philosophy of medicine and the logic of diagnostic and therapeutic reasoning. His work in spirituality is focused primarily on the spiritual dimensions of the practice of medicine. His empirical studies have explored topics such as decision-making by surrogates on behalf of patients who are nearing death, and informed consent for biomedical research.

Dr. Sulmasy holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University and an M.D. from Cornell University. He holds emeritus status at the University of Chicago, where he was Kilbride-Clinton Professor of Medicine and Ethics in the Department of Medicine and Divinity School, Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics in the Department of Medicine, and Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion.

Featured Works

Dr. Sulmasy is the author or editor of six books: 

  • The Healer's Calling (1997)
  • Methods in Medical Ethics (2001; 2nd ed. 2010)
  • The Rebirth of the Clinic (2006)
  • A Balm for Gilead (2006)
  • Safe Passage: A Global Spiritual Sourcebook for Care at the End of Life (2013)
  • Francis the Leper: Faith, Medicine, Theology, and Science (2014)