Fred Gifford is a professor and the associate chair of the philosophy department at Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

 in 1984 and currently teaches courses on philosophy of technology, ethics and development, ethics and healthcare, and biotechnology.

Contributions to Philosophy

Gifford's work focuses on philosophy of science, bioethics, healthcare ethics, and ethics and development. He co-founded (with Stephen L. Esquith

Stephen L. Esquith

Stephen L. Esquith is a philosophy professor and the Dean of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University. He earned his Ph.D. in political philosophy at Princeton University in 1979 and has taught courses at Michigan State University since 1980...

) the ethics and development graduate specialization at Michigan State University and he is particularly active within the current debate in development ethics.

Professional Publications

Gifford is the author of over thirty peer-reviewed publications including “Bioethics in Costa Rica: Origins and Challenges," "Ethics of Research: Protection of Human Subjects," and the book co-edited with Stephen L. Esquith entitled Capabilities, Power, and Institutions: Towards a More Critical Development Ethics.

Selected Works

Co-editor with Stephen L. Esquith of Capabilities, Power, and Institutions: Towards a More Critical Development Ethics The Pennsylvania State University Press, (2010)

Fred Gifford and Ana Rodriguez, “Bioethics in Costa Rica: Origins and Challenges”, in Catherine Myser, ed., The Social Functions of Bioethics Around the Globe, Oxford University Press, 2010.

“Ethical Issues in Enhancement Research”, in Journal of Evolution and Technology Volume 17, number 2, May 2008.

“Ethics of Research: Protection of Human Subjects”, in the Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, http://www.els.net, London: Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Reference Limited. 2008. (This is a revision of my article first published in March, 2001.)

“Pulling the Plug on Clinical Equipoise: A Critique of Miller and Weijer”, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, Sept. 2007.

“So-Called “Clinical Equipoise” and the Argument from Design”, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy v. 32, n. 2, 2007, pp. 135-150.

“Taking Equipoise Seriously: The Failure of Clinical or Community Equipoise to Resolve the Ethical Dilemmas in Randomized Clinical Trials”, in H. Kincaid & J. McKitrick (Eds.), Establishing Medical Reality: Essays in the Metaphysics and
Epistemology of Biomedical Science. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 135-150.

See also

American Philosophy

American Philosophers