Jonathan H. Marks is associate professor of bioethics, humanities and law at Penn State University, and director of the Bioethics and Medical Humanities Program at the main campus, University Park. His mission is to develop the bioethics curriculum and strengthen interdisciplinary and collaborative scholarship in the field, bringing together dynamic scholars from liberal arts, medicine, life sciences and law--within his own institution and in the academic community at large.
Much of the literature in bioethics is concerned with micro-bioethics questions, often involving discrete issues of patient care. Although these questions are of considerable importance, Jonathan is particularly interested in exploring macro-bioethics issues involving, for example, the impact of industry and national security funding on biomedical research, access to health care, and the intersections between environment, public health and human rights. These issues are just as important but often neglected, particularly in mainstream media.
Bioethics also needs to engage more effectively with the policy world. Every hour that legislators, academics and commentators spent debating whether Terry Schiavo's feeding tube should be removed, another two Americans died for lack of health insurance (according to figures published by the Institute of Medicine in 2004). As the debate about health care reform continues, so do these deaths.
Jonathan's writing has appeared in The Times (London), the New York Times, LA Times and the New England Journal of Medicine among others. He has been interviewed on NPR, BBC Radio and Voice of America (among others). He has also participated in three nationally broadcast panels on law and medical ethics at Guantanamo Bay.
