Eric J. Cassell, MD, MACP, who lives in New York, NY, retired from the active practice of internal medicine in 1998 after 37 years. He continues to teach, lecture widely, and write. He is Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and actively involved in curriculum development. He is Clinical Professor of Public Health at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, and an attending physician at The New York - Presbyterian Hospital, New York. He received his bachelor of arts from Queens College, Flushing, New York, in 1950; his master of arts from Columbia University, New York, NY, also in 1950; and his doctor of medicine from New York University College of Medicine, New York, NY, in 1954. He did his postgraduate training in internal medicine on the Third Medical Division of Bellevue Hospital in New York, NY. He was a US Public Health Service Fellow in infectious diseases in the Department of Public Health of Cornell University Medical College, serving under Dr. Walsh McDermott and Dr. Rene Dubos.

He remained in the Department of Public Health at Cornell where, in 1961, he started doing research and writing extensively on the health effects of air pollution well before the subject was of popular interest. He has been on the faculty of New York University School of Medicine and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.

In 1971, he joined the Task Force on Dying of the Hastings Center. Since that time, he has written widely about moral problems in medicine, the care of the dying, and the nature of suffering. He is the author of The Healer's Art; The Place of the Humanities in Medicine; Changing Values in Medicine; The Nature of Suffering, now in its second edition (2004); and a 2-volume work on doctor-patient communication entitled Talking with Patients, representing the result of 5 years of clinical research. Doctoring: The Nature of Primary Care Medicine appeared in 1997. His major research interest is the theory of clinical medicine.

Dr. Cassell is a Fellow and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hastings Center. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Master of the American College of Physicians. He was a member from 1997 to 2001 of the President's National Bioethics Advisory Commission.

Dr. Frühwald was born in Bratislava (former Czechoslovakia) but has lived in Vienna, Austria, most of his life. He is married to a family practitioner and has 2 children. His Gymnasium was absolved in Vienna with 1 year as an exchange student in Minnesota. He graduated with an doctor of medicine from the University of Vienna in 1978 and took his internship and residency in internal medicine in Bregenz, Austria; Vienna; and Geneva, Switzerland. A fellowship in geriatrics was completed at the University of Geneva where he was Chief Resident in Geriatrics. Returning to Vienna, he was first Staff Physician and later Deputy Chief at the Haus der Barmherzigkeit (a hospital for geriatric patients). He has been Deputy Chief since 2000 at the Center of Geriatrics and has been coresponsible for creating the Department of Geriatric Acute Care. Dr. Frühwald is a Diplomat of Geriatrics, palliative care and ethics. He also at the Academy of Occupational Therapy and is lecturer at the Institute of Ethics and Law at the University of Vienna.

His interests, activities, and publications are numerous. He has served as Visiting Professor on 2 occasions at the University of California, Davis, in the Department of Ethics as well as Geriatrics and is a member of the advisory group of experts in geriatrics to the Austrian Federal Institute of Healthcare. Dr. Frühwald is Vice President of the Austrian Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology and Board Member of the Geriatric Medicine Society of the EU. He is a member of the Geriatric Medicine Section of the European Association of Medical Specialties (UEMS) and member of the American, German, and Swiss Societies of Geriatrics and of the Austrian and Swiss Societies of Palliative Medicine. He is Co-President of the Hans Jonas Verein in Vienna, which is an organization formed to discuss bioethical questions, and has held 2 major conferences.

Aside from many publications, Dr. Frühwald's outstanding contribution is his linear concept of geriatric care, which in the same institution takes care of acute geriatric care (from which the discharge rate home hovers around 80%), through both institutional care and home outreach to elderly patients as well as nursing home or custodial care.

Chris Hackler, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Division of Medical Humanities of the College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas. He received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of North Carolina and has held awards from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Hackler was active in the Society for Health and Human Values until it merged in 1998 with two other organizations to form the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). He was elected Chair of the Association of Faculty in the Medical Humanities in 1991, then served on the governing board of the Society and edited its newsletter from 1992 to 1998. He received the Society's Distinguished Service Award in 1996. Dr. Hackler was Sealy & Smith/NEH Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Medical Humanities at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, in 2001. He has published primarily on end-of-life issues and healthcare policy. His current research is centered on ethical issues in public health and genetic interventions into the aging process.

Eike-Henner W. Kluge, PhD (University of Michigan), taught at the University of California, Irvine, before returning to Canada. He currently teaches at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. He was the first expert witness in medical ethics who was recognized by Canadian courts and the founding director of the Canadian Medical Association's Department of Ethics and Legal Affairs. He has been an advisor to the Commonwealth Medical Association and a consultant to ministries of health at the federal and provincial level. He is a member of Working Group 4 (Security in Health Information Systems) of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and was the lead author of the IMIA Code of Ethics for Health Informatics Professionals. He has testified before parliamentary and Royal Commissions on health-related issues, and has published extensively on a wide variety of ethical and legal subjects that are related to healthcare.

John Lantos, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, Chief of General Pediatrics, and Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Lantos took his undergraduate degree at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; completed a pediatrics residency at George Washington University, Washington, DC; and served 2 years in the National Health Service Corps in the mountains of southern West Virginia. He then took a fellowship in Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago, where he has been ever since. Dr. Lantos collaborates extensively and intensively with scholars in philosophy, law, public policy, economics, literature, history, and theology.

As a consultant in health policy, Dr. Lantos was a member of President Clinton's Health Care Reform Task Force. This experience led him to write his first book, Do We Still Need Doctors? (New York: Routledge; 1997), which explores some of the implications of health policy changes upon the doctor-patient relationship. His next book, The Lazarus Case (Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press; 2001), uses medical malpractice cases to explore the ethical dilemmas of innovation in neonatal intensive care units. He is coeditor (with Carl Elliott) of The Last Physician: Walker Percy and the Moral Life of Medicine (Durham, NC: Duke; 1999) and (with Roberto Burgio) Primum Non Nocere Today (New York: Elsevier; 1996). His latest book, Neonatal Bioethics: A Success Story, will be published in the spring of 2006 by Johns Hopkins University Press. Dr. Lantos has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

Dr. Lantos has served as President of both the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics and the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. He teaches courses on literature and medicine, health policy, and clinical ethics at The University of Chicago and lectures widely. He has been named one of the top pediatricians in Chicago by both Chicago Magazine and Ladies' Home Journal.

Erich H. Loewy, MD, FACP, was endowed Chair of Bioethics at the University of California, Davis, where he is currently emeritated and continues to teach, lecture, and publish. He has published 13 books, book chapters, and over 100 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Loewy has received the "Golden Apple" for teaching in Illinois; has been voted into AOA by the students; has received the Parazelsus Ring, which is given to various persons who are believed to have contributed to whatever field that might serve human progress; and was awarded "das Goldene Ehrenzeichen der Stadt/Land Wien," which is the highest civilian award that is given in Austria. He has sponsored several international conferences and frequently lectures here and abroad.

Roberta Springer Loewy, PhD, started out as a boarded critical care unit nurse, but after about 10 years, she went back to school and received a bachelor of arts in philosophy from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, and a master of arts as well as a doctorate in philosophy with a concentration in healthcare ethics from Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. Her interests in philosophy and bioethics in addition to the usual questions of bioethics have a strong commitment to the application of John Dewey's philosophy as a method for providing some insights into healthcare ethics as well as issues of social justice.

She has authored and coauthored a number of books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journal articles. One of her main interests is the relationship between society and institutions and the relationship of both with the individual. She has extensive experience working with hospice, ethics committees, and is on the board of several peer-reviewed journals.

She has had much experience in classroom and seminar sessions, and has been asked to lecture in the United States and abroad. She has worked as educator and consultant for students, physicians, and other members of the healthcare team. As Associate Volunteer Professor of Bioethics, she has taught the ethics component of a chaplaincy training program and has served as a consultant on the individual, institutional, and state level.

Steven Miles, MD, is Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and on the faculty of the Center for Bioethics, the Graduate School Faculty, and the University Council on Aging.

He is board-certified in internal medicine and geriatrics, which he teaches and practices at the University of Minnesota. He has served as President of the American Association of Bioethics. He has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and 3 major career awards.

He has published 3 books, 30 chapters, and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles on medical ethics, human rights, tropical medicine, end-of-life care, and geriatric healthcare. His latest book is The Hippocratic Oath and the Ethics of Medicine. He is working on a book on the role of physicians in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

He has been active in state and national healthcare reform, including serving on President Clinton's Bioethics Working Group on Health Care Reform. His work has changed end-of-life care, tuberculosis treatment for refugees, and the use of restraints in nursing homes.

His international work includes 25 years of work with the American Refugee Committee, including service as Chief Medical Officer for 45,000 refugees on the Thai-Cambodian border, AIDS prevention in Sudan, tsunami relief in Indonesia, and teaching in many countries.

Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD, is Chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics in Washington, DC, and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics at the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine; Master of the American College of Physicians; and Fellow or member of 20 scientific, professional, and honorary societies, including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Association of American Physicians, American Clinical and Climatological Association, and American Osler Society.

Dr. Pellegrino is an author, coauthor, or editor of 20 books, including Humanism and the Physician, A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice, For the Patient's Good (with David C. Thomasma, PhD), Virtues in Medical Practice, Christian Virtues in Medical Practice, and Helping and Healing. He is the founding editor of Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Dr. Pellegrino has authored over 550 publications, including editorial contributions, articles and reviews in scientific research, and medical education and philosophy, and is a member of 8 editorial boards. Dr. Pellegrino is listed in Who's Who in America, American Men of Science, World's Who's Who in Science, and others.