Institution
Kennedy Institute of Ethics
ABP-I-0007
Overview
At Georgetown University, physician André E. Hellegers established the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in 1971 with Kennedy family support. Medicine's expanding technical choices had become matters for theologians, philosophers, social scientists, and clinicians to study together. The Institute gave that exchange a university-based research and teaching home.
Its scholars and library staff built tools for a field still learning how to locate its own literature: the Bibliography of Bioethics, the Bioethics Research Library, and the Encyclopedia of Bioethics are part of that history. The Institute also sustained interdisciplinary teaching and research across medical ethics and the life sciences.
Historical Role
Where The Hastings Center developed an independent forum, the Kennedy Institute anchored bioethics within a university. Its library and reference work made the emerging field more accessible to subsequent researchers and students.
Historical Significance
A formative university institute whose teaching and scholarly infrastructure supported the consolidation of American bioethics.
Roles and contributions
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Founding director
Beginning 1971
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Founding member
1971
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Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics
1986
Key facts
- ABP identifier
- ABP-I-0007
- Dates
- 1971–present
- Location
- Washington, DC