Rebecca Dresser
Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law Emerita
Office
Anheuser-Busch Hall
Room 562
About Rebecca Dresser
Since 1983, Rebecca Dresser has taught medical and law students about legal and ethical issues in end-of-life care, biomedical research, genetics, assisted reproduction, and related topics. Her 2017 book, Silent Partners: Human Subjects and Research Ethics, calls for including experienced study subjects in research deliberations and policy making. She is also the author of When Science Offers Salvation: Patient Advocacy and Research Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2001) and editor of Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer (Oxford University Press, 2012). From 2002-2009, she was a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics.
Education
- J.D., Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979
- M.S., Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 1975
- B.A., Psychology and Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 1973
Courses
- Bioethics and Law
- Regulating Drugs and Other Medical Technologies
- Human Genome Project and the Law
- Criminal Law
- Seminars: Biomedical Research Law and Policy; Genetics Ethics, Law, and Policy
Areas of Expertise
- Bioethics and Law
- Regulation of Drugs
Scholarship
- Silent Partners: Human Subjects and Research Ethics, New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, paperback forthcoming 2018
- Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012 (editor and contributor)
- The Human Use of Animals: Case Studies in Ethical Choice, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, 2d ed. 2008. Co-authored with Orlans, Beauchamp, Morton, & Gluck
- “Informed Consent in Right to Try: A Dubious Assumption,” Wake Forest University Journal of Law & Policy, 11: 1-6, 2020.
- “Beyond Cruzan: Dementia and the Best Interests Standard,” Symposium Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, Southern Methodist University Law Review, 73: 71-90, 2020.
- “Dementia, Disability, and Advance Directives: Defensible Legal Standards for Decisions about Future Dementia Care,” in Disability, Health, Law, and Bioethics 77-88, I. Glenn Cohen, Carmel Shachar, Anita Silvers and Michael Ashley Stein eds., Cambridge University Press, 2020.
- “Putting the Ethical Principles into Practice,” in Principles of Animal Research Ethics 69-77, Tom Beauchamp and David DeGrazia eds., Oxford University Press, 2020.
- “Precommitment Devices: A Defensible Treatment for Opioid Addiction?” American Journal of Law & Medicine, 46: 189-202, 2020.
- “Dementia and the Death Penalty,” Hastings Center Report, 49: 6-7, November-December 2019.
Media
Activity & Affiliations
- Visiting Scholar, Bioethics Program, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Fall 2017
- Guest Faculty, National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center Training Program in Research Ethics in the Americas, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 8-12, 2017
- Gene and Cell Therapy Data Safety and Monitoring Board, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 2017-present
- Contributing Editor and Editorial Board Member, Hastings Center Report, 2016-present
- Hastings Center Board of Directors and Fellows Council Chair, 2014-2016, Vice-Chair 2012-2014
- National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, 2011-2015
- President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002-2009
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Advisory Council, National Institutes of Health, 1997-2001
Honors & Awards
- 2014 Washington University Distinguished Faculty Award
- 2014 Women’s Justice Award, St. Louis Lawyers Weekly
- Hastings Center Fellow