Leonard M. Fleck is a philosophy professor and well known medical ethicist. He earned his Ph.D. from St. Louis University

Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the...

 in 1975 and taught courses at St. Mary's College (Indiana)

Saint Mary's College (Indiana)

Saint Mary's College is a private Catholic liberal arts college founded in 1844 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. It is located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community northeast of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States — as are the University of Notre Dame and Holy...

 before going on to teach and 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,...

 where he currently holds a dual appointment with the philosophy department and the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. Fleck was also a member of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Task Force on Health Reform in 1993 and the staff ethicist for the Michigan governor's task force on access to health care in 1989-1990.

Contributions to Philosophy

Dr. Fleck's work primarily focuses on medical ethics, priority-setting or rationing, health care policy, and decision making in reproduction. He also explores the role of democratic deliberation when controversial issues of ethics are addressed and the formation of public policy surrounding emerging genetic technologies. In addition to the honors above, Fleck is also a member of the Hastings Center

Hastings Center

The Hastings Center, founded in 1969, is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit bioethics research institute based in the United States. It is dedicated to the examination of essential questions in health care, biotechnology, and the environment...

 and served for three years as chair of the Philosophy and Medicine Committee of the American Philosophical Association.

Professional Publications

During his career, Fleck has written over one hundred professional publications dealing with a broad range of topics in health care ethics and especially on issues related to health care justice and health care policy. More recently Fleck published a number of articles on ethical issues focused on emerging genetic technologies while he acted as co-principal investigator for two three-year NIH ELSI grants. He currently completed a book for Oxford University Press called "Just Caring: The Moral and Practical Challenges of Health Reform and Health Care Rationing" which explores the role of democratic deliberation when problems of health care justice are addressed. As a side note, Fleck also published a scholarly article on Ursula K. Le Guin's book The Dispossessed

The Dispossessed

The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, set in the same fictional universe as that of The Left Hand of Darkness . The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1974, both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1975, and received a nomination for...

.

Awards and Distinctions

In addition to being appointed a member of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Task Force on Health Reform in 1993 and the staff ethicist for the Michigan governor's task force on access to health care, Fleck was also awarded the University Distinguished Faculty Award from Michigan State University in 2003, is an elected fellow of the Hastings Center, and was awarded numerous fellowships and grants.

Selected Works

Personalized medicine's ragged edge. Hastings Cent Rep. 2010;40(5):16-18.

Just Caring: Health Care Rationing and Democratic Deliberation. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2009.

Regulating reproductive technologies: Can we trust "democratic deliberation"? Hastings Cent Rep. 2007;37(4):22-5.

Fleck LM, Petersmark K. Ethical Considerations Related to Obesity Intervention. In: Fitzgerald HE, Davies HD, eds. Obesity in Childhood and Adolescence: Understanding Development and Prevention. 2nd ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press; 2007:271-303.

The costs of caring: Who pays? Who profits? Who panders? Hastings Cent Rep. 2006;36(3):13-7.

See Also

American Philosophy

American philosophy

American philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while American philosophy lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and...

American Philosophers

Medical Ethics

Medical ethics

Medical ethics is a system of moral principles that apply values and judgments to the practice of medicine. As a scholarly discipline, medical ethics encompasses its practical application in clinical settings as well as work on its history, philosophy, theology, and sociology.-History:Historically,...