About the Center for Health Care Ethics
The Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University supports scholarship and community engagement activities that bridge secular and religious discourse. With areas of focus including clinical care, marginalized voices, and emerging biotechnology, the Gnaegi Center brings SLU’s Catholic, Jesuit tradition into the interdisciplinary study of philosophical and theological bioethics.
The Gnaegi Center has a long history of serving health care institutions through consultations and educational programs. It has received more than $2 million in research funding from government agencies and foundations, including grants from the National Institutes of Health and SSM Health Care. The center has sponsored lectures, symposia, and visiting professorships that foster critical dialogue on perennial and emerging issues in clinical, research and public health ethics, as well as the philosophical and theological foundations for approaching such issues.
Students can pursue a Ph.D. in health care ethics while completing professional training in law or medicine. The center offers three dual-degree programs: M.D./Ph.D., J.D./Ph.D. and M.A./Ph.D.
History of the Center
The Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics was established in 1979 to provide ethics education and consultations at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. It has grown into an independent academic department with diverse faculty, vibrant research and excellent educational offerings.
Throughout this time, center faculty has influenced numerous bioethics debates in American society, serving as consultants to the Nancy Beth Cruzan case, NASA, the Institute of Medicine, the United Network for Organ Sharing, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Center for Health Care Ethics Timeline
Founded by Kevin O'Rourke, OP, JCD, the center’s original mission is to provide education and consultations, particularly within the School of Medicine and throughout Catholic health care.
New health sciences programs are added and the center develops a strong reputation for its continuing education summer institutes, which serve more than 100 people each year.
The annual Reverend Edward J. Drummond, S.J., Lecture in Health Care Ethics is established in honor of the first vice president of SLU’s School of Medicine. Speakers include Ezekiel Emanuel, Edmond Pellegrino, Daniel Sulmasy and other prominent scholars.
Originally under the editorship of Kevin O'Rourke, the periodical has been published in partnership with the Catholic Health Association since 2007.
The center begins functioning as an academic department. Its mission develops in critical ways, as it establishes an increasingly multidisciplinary faculty and a greater emphasis on research publications and grants.
The optional program allows students to complete 15 hours of coursework in empirical research methods, enabling them to gather original dissertation data from surveys, interviews or focus groups. The program is the first of its kind, anticipating the movement toward empirical research in bioethics.
The center also partners with the School of Medicine to establish an M.D./Ph.D. dual-degree program. It has since obtained more than $2 million in research funding from government agencies and foundations.
The Ph.D. program also begins collaborating with the Saint Louis University School of Law to establish a dual-degree J.D./Ph.D. health care ethics program.
In cooperation with the Aquinas Institute of Theology, the center offers students a dual degree in health care ethics and theology. The center is also renamed the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics to honor the contributions of Dr. Albert Gnaegi to Saint Louis University.
The Social Science Research Group is established and the center begins teaching undergraduate humanities courses.
The 15-credit hour minor offers undergraduate students an opportunity to discuss the ethical questions that occur in health care systems.
A partnership with the Department of Theological Studies produces graduates with a well-rounded understanding of ethics based on Catholic health care.
The move into the College of Arts and Sciences allows the center to implement an undergraduate major as well as to align itself with other humanities disciplines.
The bioethics and health studies major provides students with the tools to analyze the ethical questions raised by advances in medical and scientific technology. It examines these questions both in the clinical context and in health policy.
A partnership with the Department of Philosophy produces graduates with the capacity to engage bioethical issues through a philosophical lens such as ethical theory, social/political philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology or the philosophy of science.
The HCE department offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, while the center sponsors interdisciplinary scholarly and community engagement activities.