Glenn McGee

A WILLIAM MORROW AUTHOR

Glenn McGee has been one of America’s leading voices about the ethical issues in biomedical technology for three decades. Founder and editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Bioethics for a decade, he has held two endowed chairs and faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Union University, SUNY School of Public Health, and today is a Professor and Dean of Admissions at Salem College, the nation’s oldest educational institution for women. He has authored more than 200 articles for medical, legal, business and scientific journals, including Science, Nature Medicine, and JAMA. He is best know for his work on ethical issues in new reproductive technologies and in genomics, compensation of research subjects, a pragmatic theory of bioethics, the patenting and sale of biological materials, ethical issues in tissue and gene banks, and ethical issues in stem cell research. His books include Who Owns Life?, Pragmatic Bioethics, The Human Cloning Debate, The Perfect Baby, New York Times bestseller Beyond Genetics (William Morrow HarperCollins), and Bioethics for Beginners. He has also authored a syndicated column for Hearst, and regular columns for The Scientist and for MSNBC.

Dr. McGee has testified before the House and Senate and multiple committees of a number of states in the U.S. He has taught bioethics to incoming members of the U.S. Congress and taught workshops on bioethics for the Association of Chief Justices of the US Courts of Appeals. He served on the FDA Panel on Molecular and Genetic Devices and received a commendation for excellent service from the FDA in 2008. He was the American external evaluator of all genetics and policy programs for the United Kingdom's Economic and Social Research Council in 2007. In 2006 Dr. McGee organized "Bioethics and Politics," the first national conference to bring together conservative and liberal thinkers in biomedical ethics, hailed as "the most important bioethics conference in 25 years" by the then ASBH President. He has been elected to the boards of directors of several foundations and organizations including Planned Parenthood.

McGee's innovation in teaching and outreach in bioethics education is is widely recognized, including the first undergraduate program in bioethics at an Ivy League university (Penn), which was hailed by the New York Times and by Harvard University Project Zero because graduates must draft, advocate for, and negotiate legislation in their home state. In a joint effort led by Dr. McGee with Apple, in 2006 he developed a successful online graduate program in bioethics using technologies such as Apple's iTunes University and bioethics.net, the first bioethics website (which he founded in 1994).

Glenn received his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University and his B.A. at Baylor University, who named him Outstanding Young Alumnus in 2000 and one of its "top 150 graduates of all time" in 2008. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the US Human Genome Project’s ethical, legal, and social issues division.