Home
People

People

Our People and Our Mission

Bioethics begins with important questions, such as: Should physician-assisted suicide be part of medicine? Should genetic engineering be used in ways that can treat and prevent disease but could change future generations? What healthcare should be provided to all members of society independently of ability to pay? Should patients be “nudged” to make certain medically recommended choices? What sorts of individual results from research should be returned to research participants?

Answering these questions requires engagement with deeper issues, such as when life begins and ends, what is healthcare justice, what makes a patient’s decision a good one, and what are acceptable risks of new technology? Intelligent consideration of these questions requires multiple perspectives and input from many fields of study, including medicine, philosophy, history, law, public health, sociology, and anthropology.

Based at the IU School of Medicine, the IU Center for Bioethics brings together faculty with expertise in all these fields and primary appointments at schools across the IU - Indianapolis (IUI) campus and IU Health. Center faculty write and speak about bioethics and conduct research. They teach and engage with providers, researchers, students, and the broader community to foster understanding of bioethics with the goal of improving future health and healthcare.

Our People

Here is some information about our people.

20 results found

Peter H. Schwartz, MD, PhD

Director, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine

Email:: phschwar@iu.edu
: Shared decision-making and risk communication, Patient decision aids, Ethics and patient engagement in precision medicine and genetics, Biobank consent and governance, Defining and using concepts of function, dysfunction, risk, and disease in bioethics and healthcare.

Nicolas J. Oliver, MA

Program Manager, Indiana University Center for Bioethics

Email:: olivnj@iu.edu

Karen K. Schmidt, MSN, RN, CCRP

Project Manager, Indiana University Center for Bioethics

Email:: schmidtk@iu.edu

Tom Doyle, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Indiana University Center for Bioethics

Email:: doylet@iu.edu
: Phenomenology of Health and Illness, Healthcare Access, Patient Behavior, Medical Decision-Making

Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, MD, MPH, MS

Faculty Investigator, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer, Indiana University Health

Email:: btuckere@iu.edu
: Decision making in extreme prematurity; Reproductive justice; Social and cultural disparities in medicine; Race and end-of-life care.

Margaret Gaffney, MD

Faculty Investigator, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Emerita, Associate Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine

Email:: mgaffney@iu.edu
: Medical ethics education; Conscience and moral development; Concientious objection.

Colin Halverson, PhD

Faculty Investigator, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine

Email:: chalver@iu.edu
: Medical genetics; Return of genetic and research results; Healthcare communication and language.

Jane A. Hartsock, JD, MA

Faculty Investigator, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
System Director of Clinical and Organizational Ethics, IU Health

Email:: jhartsock@iuhealth.org
: Clinical ethics; Medical humanities; Organ transplantation; Minor consent for biobank research.

Lauren Nephew, MD, MA, MSc

Faculty Investigator, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Assistant Prof. of Medicine in the Div. of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Indiana University School of Medicine

Email:: lnephew@iu.edu
: Health Equity, Transplantation Ethics, Racial Disparities in Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Alcoholic Hepatitis

David Craig, PhD, MA, MTS

Faculty Investigator, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, Indiana University School of Liberal Arts, IU Indianapolis

Email:: davcraig@iu.edu
: Religious ethics; Healthcare reform and public values; Health equity.

Joshua B. Rager, MD, MA, MS

Faculty Investigator, IU Center for Bioethics
Assistant Professor of Medicine, IU School of Medicine

Email:: jbrager@iu.edu
: Medical decision-making, personalized and patient-centered care.

Brandon P. Brown, MD, MA, FAAP

Affiliate Faculty, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Vice-Chair for Professional Development and Wellness and Associate Professor, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine

Email:: brpbrown@iu.edu
: Professionalism and ethical education in medicine; Perinatal ethics and diagnostics.

Amber Comer, PhD, JD

Affiliate Faculty, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, IU School of Health and Human Services

Email:: comer@iu.edu
: Surrogate decision making; Stroke; End-of-life decision making; Health policy; Research ethics.

Rob Katz, JD

Affiliate Faculty, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Professor , Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Email:: rokatz@iu.edu
: Prisoner health; Religious freedom; Tissue donation; Non-profits.

Amy Waltz, JD, CIP

Affiliate Faculty, Indiana University Center for Bioethics
Associate Director, Research Integrity Office, Indiana University Office of Research Compliance

Email:: acthurst@iu.edu
: Indiana University research integrity; Human research protection and compliance; Revised Common Rule.