William Ruddick Professor of Philosophy, Bioethics; Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry Department of Philosophy 5 Washington Place New York, NY 10003  Phone: (212) 998-8329 Fax: (212) 995-4179 Email: Ph.D. 1964 Harvard M.A. 1963 Oxford A.B. 1953 Princeton Click here to download CV.

William Ruddick (Ph.D., Harvard) is Professor of Philosophy, Arthur Zitrin Professor of Bioethics, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, and Director of the NYU Center for Bioethics. He specializes in normative ethics, especially bioethics. Publications include: “‘Biographical lives’ revisited and extended” (J. of Ethics 2005), “Prejudice against ‘unbalanced families’” (Amer. J. of Bioethics 2001), “Hope and Deception” (Bioethics 1999), “Family and Ethics” (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E. Craig 1998), “Parenthood: Three concepts and a principle” (Morals, Marriage, & Parenthood, ed. L. Houlgate 1998), “Do doctors undertreat pain?” (Bioethics 1997 ), “Social self-deceptions” (Perspectives on Self-Deception, ed. A.O. Rorty 1988). He has edited Philosophers in Medical Centers (Society for Philosophy & Public Affairs 1980) and (with O. O’Neill), Having Children (Oxford UP 1979). He recently co-authored (with Lori Gruen) “Biomedical and Environmental Ethics Alliance: Common Causes and Grounds” (J. Bioethical Inquiry 2009)—a rationale for the collaboration of the NYU Centers for Bioethics and Environmental Studies and M.A. degree in Bioethics: Life, Heath, and the Environment. He is currently writing a book, tentatively entitled: Medical Pieties and Maxims: Life, Hope, and Trust

Online Papers

• “Biomedical and environmental ethics alliance: Common causes and grounds” (J. Bioethical Inquiry 2009)
• “‘Biographical Lives’ revisited & extended,” J. of Ethics July 2005
• “Hope and Deception,” Bioethics 13:3/4 (1999)
• “Do doctors undertreat pain?,” Bioethics 11:3/4 1997
• “Parenthood: Three concepts and a principle,” Morals, Marriage, and Parenthood, ed. L.D.Houlgate 1998
• “Medical Ethics,” Encyclopedia of Ethics, eds. L. & C. Becker, 2nd edition (1998)
• “Commemorating 9/11: Anesthesia, Buffing, & Footprints” (draft)
• “Death for doctors” (draft)

Recent Courses

Undergraduate

• Life and Death
• Medical Ethics
• Topics in Ethics & Political Philosophy

Graduate

• Life and Death
• Reproductive Ethics
• Clinical Ethics
• Advanced Introduction to Bioethics