GC Grad a Leading Medical Ethicist at the Mayo Clinic

Published: April 13, 2021

I transferred to Greenville College in January of 1978 from Knox College. After starting at Knox, I committed my life to Christ's service, beginning a long journey of trying to hear His voice. Knox was not a supportive environment for such a quest. After prayer I chose to move to GC, which was my sister Fran's alma mater (1968), believing it would be a place to grow not just academically but spiritually. That belief was well placed. GC was the perfect place for me; a community of faith, committed to academic excellence in the service of the Kingdom. Many of my teachers became spiritual mentors and friends, including Matt and Ann Zahniser. Though I never dreamed I would become an academic bioethicist in addition to a physician at the time, those seeds were planted and grown during my time in Greenville. It is such a blessing, in a society and academic milieu that is ever increasingly hostile to truth, the legitimate exchange of ideas, and the Gospel, to have such a place as Greenville where the fullness of living and thinking in Christ can be freely experienced. Perhaps it is because I was an "outsider" for awhile before transferring to GC that I appreciated it as greatly as I did, and still do. To this day, I remember with great fondness the wonderful spirit of community and worship that we had in chapel. In my first week of chapels I felt like a man who had been in the desert, arriving at a beautiful water-filled oasis.

Presently, I am a hematologist and medical ethicist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I serve as Associate Professor of Medicine in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine , Chair of the Non-Malignant Hematology Section in the Division of Hematology, and as a Consultant in the Comprehensive Hemophilia Center, and the Special Coagulation Laboratory and Clinic. I founded the Mayo Clinical Ethics Council, the Ethics Consultation Service, the Reproductive Medicine Advisory Board and the Transplantation Ethics Advisory Board, but have turned leadership responsibilities of these services over to colleagues I have mentored. It has been my pleasure and honor to serve on various governmental groups such as the HHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society, and as an advisor to different elected officials on nanotechnology ethics, stem cell ethics, and other concerns. I have been fortunate to serve many different organizations in the area of medical ethics including CMDA, the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, the Center for Bioethics and Culture, Do No Harm, Joni Tada's International Disability Center and as a Fellow in Chuck Colson's Wilberforce Forum (now the Wilberforce Fellows). I also serve as an adjunct professor of bioethics at Trinity International University, Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis and Lincoln Christian University in Lincoln, IL. My current project at Mayo is developing a web-based ethics curriculum for the over 3200 fellows, residents and students, and 3700 staff physicians and scientists in our system.

I recently reconnected with GC when I received a wonderful invitation to meet with Scott McFarlane, a 1993 GC grad now employed at GC. During our time together I shared with him my long term dream of creating an ethics program for all the institutions in the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). This program would involve the integration of worldview education with the practical issues facing us all in the areas of health care and biotechnologies. Our conversation led to a great correspondence with President Linamen and his wife, Dr. Fisher, and ultimately the idea for the medical ethics conference at GC in April was born. I am greatly looking forward to returning to Greenville College.