Dan Addison
Obituary
John Arras Leading US philosopher and bioethicist. Born on Aug 25, 1945, in San Mateo, CA, USA, he died from a stroke on March 9, 2015, in Galveston, TX, USA, aged 69 years. The ethical questions that can keep physicians up at night were John Arras’s purview. The University of Virginia professor and member of the US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues tackled diverse issues in his long career, ranging from prenatal screening for disabilities to clinical research on human participants and reproductive decisions for patients with AIDS. “He didn’t follow academic fad and fashion. John was someone you could rely on to tell you how much there was there”, says Alex John London, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Ethics and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. “He had no academic affectations. There was nothing false about him, he was very genuine.” Arras was Porterfield Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Professor of Philosophy and Public Health Science at the University of Virginia for 20 years, and during his career took on many wider roles, including board member of the Hastings Center, consulting for the National Institutes of Health, and as a founding member of the ethics advisory board of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While consulting for the CDC, Arras argued the ethical grounds for rationing vaccines during an avian influenza pandemic, and urged a national dialogue to establish rationing principles for such a situation “within a context of public democratic deliberation”. He also addressed the controversial topic of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), taking a complex position that acknowledged there were 1828
occasions when it was ethically permissible while recognising legalisation could have adverse social effects, especially for vulnerable groups. But, he wrote, “As soon as [clinical and social] reforms are in place, however, we might then wish to proceed slowly and cautiously with experiments in various states to test the overall benefits of a policy of legalization. Until that time, however, we are not well served as a society by court decisions allowing for legalization of PAS.” Arras was long-interested in the methods and process of ethical decision making in health care. He co-edited The Routledge Companion to Bioethics and eight editions of the textbook Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine, and wrote many articles and book chapters. Before he died he completed his book The Way We Reason Now: Skeptical Reflections on Method in Bioethics. “John made substantive contributions on many issues, but I suspect his reflections on method and theory may turn out to be among the most important and lasting”, says Thomas Murray, President Emeritus at The Hastings Center, where Arras was a fellow. He explored the limitations of principlism—the predominant method taught to students which holds that bioethical issues can be analysed with a set of principles—and was sceptical about whether firstperson narratives can lead to moral knowledge. “He was an exceptional person, excellent scholar, and a great colleague”, says bioethicist James Childress, University Professor at the University of Virginia. “He raised important questions and criticisms in genial spirit. It was always a relationship in which he wouldn’t pull punches but would offer much appreciated criticism.” Murray recalls Arras’s “invincible sense of humour— so quick-witted, always ready to laugh at himself, and delighted to puncture the inflated ego of the self-deluded”. Arras encountered Continental philosophy at the Institute of European Studies and the University of Paris (Sorbonne) during the mid-1960s and graduated in Philosophy and French from the University of San Francisco in 1967. 2 years later, he volunteered for the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone. He went on to receive his doctorate in philosophy from Northwestern University in 1972. He was on the faculties of the University of the Redlands and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Montefiore Medical Center before taking up his professorial roles at the University of Virginia in 1995. At the university Arras developed an undergraduate programme in bioethics and mentored graduate students. He told the university’s magazine last year, “I see myself as being in the business of helping students become who they are going to become. I love being around young people, prodding them, arguing with them. There is a Socratic element to it, an intense connection between the teacher and student. It’s a kind of secular blessedness, to love what you do over a very long stretch of time. That’s as good as it gets.” Arras is survived by his wife, Liz Emrey, two daughters, Marina Wright and Melissa Emrey-Arras, a brother, a sister, and five grandchildren.
Alison Snyder www.thelancet.com Vol 385 May 9, 2015
Obituary
John Arras Leading US philosopher and bioethicist. Born on Aug 25, 1945, in San Mateo, CA, USA, he died from a stroke on March 9, 2015, in Galveston, TX, USA, aged 69 years. The ethical questions that can keep physicians up at night were John Arras’s purview. The University of Virginia professor and member of the US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues tackled diverse issues in his long career, ranging from prenatal screening for disabilities to clinical research on human participants and reproductive decisions for patients with AIDS. “He didn’t follow academic fad and fashion. John was someone you could rely on to tell you how much there was there”, says Alex John London, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Ethics and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. “He had no academic affectations. There was nothing false about him, he was very genuine.” Arras was Porterfield Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Professor of Philosophy and Public Health Science at the University of Virginia for 20 years, and during his career took on many wider roles, including board member of the Hastings Center, consulting for the National Institutes of Health, and as a founding member of the ethics advisory board of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While consulting for the CDC, Arras argued the ethical grounds for rationing vaccines during an avian influenza pandemic, and urged a national dialogue to establish rationing principles for such a situation “within a context of public democratic deliberation”. He also addressed the controversial topic of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), taking a complex position that acknowledged there were 1828
occasions when it was ethically permissible while recognising legalisation could have adverse social effects, especially for vulnerable groups. But, he wrote, “As soon as [clinical and social] reforms are in place, however, we might then wish to proceed slowly and cautiously with experiments in various states to test the overall benefits of a policy of legalization. Until that time, however, we are not well served as a society by court decisions allowing for legalization of PAS.” Arras was long-interested in the methods and process of ethical decision making in health care. He co-edited The Routledge Companion to Bioethics and eight editions of the textbook Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine, and wrote many articles and book chapters. Before he died he completed his book The Way We Reason Now: Skeptical Reflections on Method in Bioethics. “John made substantive contributions on many issues, but I suspect his reflections on method and theory may turn out to be among the most important and lasting”, says Thomas Murray, President Emeritus at The Hastings Center, where Arras was a fellow. He explored the limitations of principlism—the predominant method taught to students which holds that bioethical issues can be analysed with a set of principles—and was sceptical about whether firstperson narratives can lead to moral knowledge. “He was an exceptional person, excellent scholar, and a great colleague”, says bioethicist James Childress, University Professor at the University of Virginia. “He raised important questions and criticisms in genial spirit. It was always a relationship in which he wouldn’t pull punches but would offer much appreciated criticism.” Murray recalls Arras’s “invincible sense of humour— so quick-witted, always ready to laugh at himself, and delighted to puncture the inflated ego of the self-deluded”. Arras encountered Continental philosophy at the Institute of European Studies and the University of Paris (Sorbonne) during the mid-1960s and graduated in Philosophy and French from the University of San Francisco in 1967. 2 years later, he volunteered for the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone. He went on to receive his doctorate in philosophy from Northwestern University in 1972. He was on the faculties of the University of the Redlands and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Montefiore Medical Center before taking up his professorial roles at the University of Virginia in 1995. At the university Arras developed an undergraduate programme in bioethics and mentored graduate students. He told the university’s magazine last year, “I see myself as being in the business of helping students become who they are going to become. I love being around young people, prodding them, arguing with them. There is a Socratic element to it, an intense connection between the teacher and student. It’s a kind of secular blessedness, to love what you do over a very long stretch of time. That’s as good as it gets.” Arras is survived by his wife, Liz Emrey, two daughters, Marina Wright and Melissa Emrey-Arras, a brother, a sister, and five grandchildren.
Alison Snyder www.thelancet.com Vol 385 May 9, 2015
