Arthur L. Caplan PhD, is Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics and director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to Penn in 1994, Caplan taught at the University of Minnesota, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia University. He was the Associate Director of the Hastings Center from 1984-1987.

Born in Boston, Caplan did his undergraduate work at Brandeis University, and did his graduate work at Columbia University where he received a Ph.D in the history and philosophy of science.

Academic work

Caplan is the author or editor of twenty-five books and over 500 papers in refereed journals of medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics and health policy.

He has served on a number of national and international committees including as the Chair National Cancer Institute Biobanking Ethics Working Group, the Chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning, the Chair of the Advisory Committee to the Department of Health and Human Services on Blood Safety and Availability, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, the special advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee on genetics and gene therapy, the ethics committee of the American Society of Gene Therapy, and the special advisory panel to the National Institute of Mental Health on human experimentation on vulnerable subjects. He has consulted with many corporations, not for profit organizations and consumer organizations. He is a member of the board of directors of The Keystone Center, the National Center for Policy Research on Women and Families, Octagon, Iron Disorders Foundation and the National Disease Research Interchange. He chaired the advisory committee on bioethics at Glaxo from 2005-8. He is on the food advisory panel for Edelman public relations and co-director of a United Nations/Council of Europe Study on organ trafficking.

He writes a regular column on bioethics for MSNBC.com. He is a frequent guest and commentator on various media outlets.

He is a fellow of the Hastings Center, the NY Academy of Medicine, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Awards and honors

Bibliography

According to the Web of Science, Caplan's works have been cited about 1500 times, leading to an h-index of 20.

Articles

• "Creating a medical, legal and ethical framework for complex living kidney donors," Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 1: 2006: 1148-53
• "Gene therapy and erectile dysfunction," Human Gene Therapy, 18, 2006, 1177.
• “Taking ethics seriously in cosmetic dermatology”, Archives of Dermatology, 142, 12, 2006: 1641-2
• “Lessons across the pond: Assisted reproductive technology in the UK and the USA,” American Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics, 31, 2005: 419-446.
• “The appropriate use of artificial nutrition and hydration: fundamental principles and recommendations for the future.” New England Journal of Medicine, 2005: 2607-2612 (with D. Cassarett and J. Kapo).
• “Misusing the Nazi Analogy, Science, 309, 2005:535
• "Attack of the Anti-Cloners," Arthur Caplan, Free Inquiry, Winter 2002/2003, p. 30.
• "Mapping Morality: The Rights and Wrongs of Genomics," in M. Yudell and R. DeSalle, eds., The Genomics Revolution, Joseph Henry Press, 2002: 189-94.
• "NAS Cloning Hearing," Science, 294 (2001): 1651
• "Cloning Human Embryos," Western Journal of Medicine, 176 (2002): 78-79.
• "Protecting Subjects' Interests in Genetics Research," American Journal of Human Genetics, 70 (2002):965-71 (with J.E Merz, D. Magnus, M.K. Cho).
• "What Is Morally Wrong with Eugenics?" in PR. Sloan, ed., Controlling Our Destinies, Notre Dame University Press, 2000: 209-23.
• "Breaking Bioethics" on the health page of MSNBC.com, featuring columns by Caplan http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3035344/