WASHINGTON — Getting to the top of his field is not something Dr. Edmund Pellegrino takes for granted.

Pellegrino, 85, a Catholic physician who is an undisputed giant in bioethics, was named chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics on Sept. 8.

Ironically, he was almost not admitted to any medical school in the early 1940s, when he was a senior at St. John's University in New York City — in spite of his excellent grades.

One Ivy League school told Pellegrino he would be happier with “his own kind.” His academic adviser explained that Italians were no more welcome than Jews in major medical schools, and he would do well to change his last name. Pellegrino refused.

His father, a wholesale food salesman in New York, approached a client who owned a restaurant near New York University. The senior Pellegrino asked to be introduced to one of the regular customers — the dean of New York University Medical School.

Pellegrino went on to become a passionate and prolific spokesman in the field of ethics in the medical profession. He is known worldwide in the field which is now called bioethics. His philosophy is centered on a few basic principles, including the view that medicine is by its very nature a moral endeavor, which is based on the covenant of the doctor-patient relationship.

Pellegrino has spent his entire life sustaining this thesis in hundreds of writings, research and clinical teachings, as well as in the care of his own patients.

His ideas are in sharp contrast to those who argue that medicine is a business subject to market forces, and that the doctor-patient relationship can be replaced by other models.

The people who know and work with him are struck by his devotion to the dignity of all human life.

“One of his fundamental principles is respect for the intrinsic dignity of every human being,” said Dominican Brother Ignatius Perkins, a nurse who studied under Pellegrino in Georgetown's Center for Clinical Bioethics.

“You find this theme continuously throughout his writings,” added Brother Perkins, who is also the head of a new center being developed by the Dominicans to expand their hospital chaplaincy of four major hospitals in New York City to include health care ethics services for doctors. The center will be called the Dominican Medical Services Campus Ministries.

‘Healing Relationship’

Pellegrino, 85, is also known for having developed “the healing relationship model.” This was designed for physicians and nurses who work with patients. It enables them to work through the patient's illness towards recovery.

“The reason it was so attractive to me was: How do you approach a person who is terminally ill?” said Perkins. “The tendency is to give up. But with this model, even if you can't heal, you must reestablish their personhood, their dignity. This model is about a relationship between two people. Two people are being healed: the doctor and the patient. The doctor feels powerless and broken in the face of terminal illness. But with this model — and I have had the opportunity to test the model in research — it works perfectly. It is a very interesting phenomenon.”

Added Edward Furton, ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center: “Dr. Pellegrino is the most distinguished Catholic bio-ethicist today. He has always been interested in the human dimension, the one-on-one. He is very focused on the patient. And the center he founded at Georgetown has become one of that university's great institutions.”

A former president of The Catholic University of America, Pellegrino will replace Leon Kass, who has chaired the President's Council on Bioethics since 2001. Kass, a Jewish bioethicist from the University of Chicago, will step down Oct. 1 but will remain a member of the council. He is considered very strong in his defense of the dignity of human life.

“Pellegrino comes from the same school of virtue-based ethics as Kass, which believes that medicine is inherently a noble work,” said Brother Perkins. “This is opposed to utilitarian-based models. In the virtue-based approach, the clinician must enter into the dynamic of the patient's experience of human suffering to some degree.”

Pellegrino's personal approach to treating patients is well-known among his colleagues.

“Having the opportunity to work with him was extraordinary,” the Dominican said. “Every person mattered to him. It did not matter the race or creed. Whenever he would see a patient his first question was always, ‘How can I help you?’ This was very important — to understand that he, the physician, must help the person in search of hope.”

One of Pellegrino's major concerns has been the current direction of healthcare. When he was appointed chairman of the President's Council, he told Catholic News Service that among the topics he plans to address are greater access to health care and issues involved in end-of-life care.

In a 2004 speech to the council, he said that bioethical discussions need to focus on the central issue of “what it means to be human.” Without an understanding of what humanity is, it is hard to ethically analyze the positive and negative advances in medicine, he said.

Given the lack of agreement on what it means to be human, an interdisciplinary dialogue is needed involving science and the humanities with philosophy having the key role in analyzing the ethical dimensions of the discussions, he added.

Commenting on Pellegrino's contributions, Brother Perkins said: “We have alienated the person, and worship at the altar of technology. Are we really concerned about a patient who happens to be sick and how can I help them? Or is it the alternative — do I approach the patient in terms of what disease do they have first?

“Because of pressure and finances, people come in and out of hospitals,” he said. “Patients are statistics instead of real lives.”

The President's Council on Bioethics was created in 2001 to keep the president and the country abreast of new developments in the field of bioethics. It deals with a wide range of bioethical issues, such as embryo and stem-cell research, assisted reproduction, cloning, uses of knowledge derived from human genetics, and end-of-life issues.

Pellegrino's appointment has left his collaborators ecstatic.

“It is absolutely phenomenal that he was chosen,” said Brother Perkins. “He's not afraid to argue his position, and he does it without making people angry. He can speak to any major issue in healthcare. His Catholic background is who he is. He has the ability to deal with radically different people but won't dismiss the person. He's a consummate gracious gentleman.”

Throughout his career, Pellegrino has continued to practice medicine: seeing patients, teaching medical students, and doing research. He has also been a strong promoter of improvements in palliative health care.

Since his retirement five years ago, he has remained at Georgetown. He continues to write, teach medicine and bioethics, and participate in clinical attending services.

“I'm certainly delighted,” said Franciscan Brother Daniel Sulmasy, a doctor who is chairman of ethics at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. “Dr. Pellegrino was my mentor and boss at Georgetown. He is a wonderful human being who is incredibly intelligent. I hope he won't be subjected to the cruel attacks by the press and mainstream bioethicists” as Kass was.

“Ed Pellegrino has been a leader in shaping both the principles and the applications of bioethics in the U.S. and the world for decades,” said Dr. Stuart Bondurant, interim executive vice president for health sciences at Georgetown University. “Rooted in principle and informed by vast personal and clinical experience, his perspectives will enrich the work of this committee.”

Sabrina Arena Ferrisi is based in Jersey City, New Jersey.

A Life in Medicine and Ethics

Dr. Edmund Pellegrino has served as director of the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University; head of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics at Georgetown; president of The Catholic University of America; president and chairman of the Yale-New Haven Medical Center; chancellor and vice president of Health Affairs at the University of Tennessee; founding chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Kentucky; dean of the School of Medicine at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and founder of the Health Sciences Center there, where he oversaw six schools of health sciences and the hospital.

He has authored or co-authored 20 books and more than 550 published articles. He is founding editor of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. In 2004, Pellegrino was named to the International Bioethics Committee of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), the only advisory body within the United Nations engaged in bioethics analysis.