Society for Health and Human Values

Society for Health and Human Values
Name	Society for Health and Human Values
Founded	1969
Founders	Kenneth E. Boulding, Ivan Illich, Paul Ramsey
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois
Dissolved	1995
Fields	medical ethics, bioethics, public health
Key people	Daniel Callahan, Andre Hellegers, Paul Farmer

Society for Health and Human Values was an interdisciplinary nonprofit organization active from the late 1960s through the 1990s that promoted discussion of ethics in clinical practice, health policy, and biomedical research. Drawing on figures from medicine, philosophy, theology, and law, the Society convened scholars and practitioners to address dilemmas raised by new technologies, social movements, and institutional change. Its initiatives intersected with debates involving hospitals, universities, and international agencies during eras shaped by the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the emergence of AIDS pandemic debates.

History

The Society for Health and Human Values was established amid intellectual ferment in the late 1960s by leaders who had worked across institutions such as Rockefeller Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, and Harvard Medical School. Early gatherings included participants associated with Kennedy administration policy circles, activists from National Welfare Rights Organization, and clinicians connected to Mayo Clinic, fostering ties to curricular reform at University of Pennsylvania and Yale School of Medicine. During the 1970s the Society engaged contemporaries from the Belmont Report deliberations, intersecting with committees at National Institutes of Health and debates that paralleled commissions like the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research. In the 1980s the Society responded to controversies involving terrace hospital reorganizations, landmark litigation such as Canterbury v. Spence, and international health crises involving actors like World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières. Financial pressures and shifting institutional priorities led to its formal dissolution in 1995, after which many members continued work at centers including Hastings Center, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and Center for Bioethics at Columbia University.

Mission and Goals

The Society articulated goals that aligned with contemporaneous initiatives at National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, and United Nations advisory panels. Its stated mission encompassed advancing scholarship in clinical ethics, influencing policy debates at bodies such as U.S. Congress, and educating practitioners affiliated with hospitals like Cleveland Clinic and academic centers such as Stanford University School of Medicine. The Society emphasized dialogue among theologians from Vatican II-era circles, philosophers influenced by John Rawls and Alasdair MacIntyre, and legal scholars working within frameworks exemplified by Supreme Court of the United States decisions. It aimed to shape curricula at institutions including Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Oxford University.

Activities and Programs

Regular activities included annual symposia that convened speakers from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, representatives from American Medical Association, and ethicists associated with Hastings Center Report. Working groups examined topics such as end-of-life care in contexts referenced by Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, resource allocation debates reminiscent of planning at Food and Agriculture Organization, and reproductive technologies linked to research at Rockefeller University. Programs supported fellowship collaborations with centers including Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, summer institutes modeled on workshops at Harvard Kennedy School, and exchange seminars with international partners such as University of Toronto and Karolinska Institutet. The Society also produced policy briefs used in hearings before committees of the United States Senate and panels associated with European Commission advisory councils.

Membership and Governance

Membership drew academics and practitioners from institutions such as Baylor College of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, McGill University, and University College London, including clinicians from major hospitals like Massachusetts General Hospital and St. Thomas' Hospital. Governance featured a board with chairs who had affiliations to National Endowment for the Humanities grants, trustees connected to foundations like Ford Foundation and Carnegie Corporation, and advisory members who served on panels at Pan American Health Organization. Election procedures mirrored nonprofit norms from organizations such as American Association for the Advancement of Science and bylaws referenced standards used by Association of American Medical Colleges. The Society fostered liaison roles with student groups at Brown University, faculty networks at Princeton University, and professional societies like the American Philosophical Association.

Publications and Conferences

The Society sponsored a quarterly bulletin and monograph series distributed to libraries at Library of Congress, university presses including Oxford University Press, and specialty periodicals such as The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine through contributed articles. Major conferences featured panels that included contributors associated with Susan Sontag, scholars influenced by Michel Foucault debates, and presentations later cited in commissions like the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. Proceedings addressed clinical cases comparable to those debated in Glanville v. Wainwright-style litigation and attracted keynote speakers from Princeton Theological Seminary, Georgetown University, and University of California, San Francisco.

Impact and Legacy

The Society influenced the institutionalization of bioethics in curricula at places such as Yale University and University of Pennsylvania, helped shape advisory practices adopted by World Health Organization ethics committees, and contributed to the formation of clinical ethics consultation services at hospitals like Johns Hopkins Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Alumni of the Society advanced to leadership roles at Hastings Center, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and national commissions such as the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Its archival records inform research in collections at National Archives and Records Administration and university libraries including Harvard University Library, and its debates continue to be cited in scholarship appearing in journals like Bioethics and Journal of Medical Ethics.

Category:Medical ethics organizations