A towering figures in Christian bioethics...

Today, let me introduce to you "a towering figures in bioethics". They are all outstanding scholars and their contribution to Christian and Secular bioethics is widely and internationally recognized.

1. Germain Grisez is the Flynn Professor of Christian Ethics at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, Maryland, a chair he has held since 1978. His doctorate in philosophy was from the University of Chicago (1959). He is a past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. Working with Joseph Boyle and John Finnis, Grisez has developed and extensively applied, not least to life issues, the theory of natural law sketched out by St. Thomas Aquinas. He is author of Beyond the New Morality: The responsibilites of Freedom and well known opera magna: The Way of the Lord Jesus.

2. John M. Finnis is Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy in the University of Oxford and Professor of Law in the University of Notre Dame. He is also Visiting Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Moral Philosophy in the Institute in Melbourne. He was born and educated in Adelaide, graduating LLB at the University of Adelaide in 1961. As Rhodes Scholar for South Australia in 1962 he went on to University College, Oxford and was awarded his D.Phil in 1965. He has been a lecturer in Law and Legal Philosophy there ever since, as well as a Member of the Philosophy sub-Faculty since 1984. He is a Governor of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics in London and a Fellow of the British Academy.He has served on the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (1990-95), the International Theological Commission (1986-95) and the Pontifical Academy for Life (since 2001). With Germain Grisez and Joseph Boyle he is credited with the revival of natural law ethics in the secular academy. His published works include "Natural Law and Natural Rights" (1980), "Fundamentals of Ethics" (1983), "Moral Absolutes: Tradition, Revision and Truth" (1991) and "Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory" (1998).

3. William E. May is the Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C., where he has been teaching since 1991. In 2003 Pope John Paul II appointed May as a consultor to the Congregation for the Clergy a title bestowed by the Vatican in recognition of his work. One of his most recent books is Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life (2000).

4. Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D. is the John Carroll Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Georgetown University. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Pellegrino is the former director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics, and is the current director of the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown. He also currently chairs the President's Council on Bioethics. He is the author of over 500 published items in medical science, philosophy, and ethics and is a member of numerous editorial boards. Dr. Pellegrino has written on subjects ranging from the history and philosophy of medicine to professional ethics and the patient-physician relationship.

* Source: http://www.cbc-network.org