Joseph Fletcher facts for kids

Joseph Francis Fletcher (April 10, 1905 in Newark, New Jersey - October 28, 1991 in Charlottesville, Virginia) was an American professor who founded the theory of situational ethics in the 1960s, and was a pioneer in the field of bioethics. Ordained as an Episcopal priest, he later identified himself as an atheist.

Life

Fletcher was a prolific academic, teaching, participating in symposia, and completing ten books, and hundreds of articles, book reviews, and translations. He taught Christian Ethics at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at Harvard Divinity School from 1944 to 1970. He was the first professor of medical ethics at the University of Virginia and co-founded the Program in Biology and Society there. He retired from teaching in 1977.

In 1974, the American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

One of his children, Joseph F. Fletcher Jr. was a historian.

Quotes

• "We need to educate people to the idea that the quality of life is more important than mere length of life. Our cultural tradition holds that life has absolute value, but that is really not good enough anymore. Sometimes, no life is better."
• "Ethics critically examines values and how they are to be acted out; but whether they are acted out or not, loyalty to them depends on character or personal quality, and so it follows that the quality of medicine depends on the character of its clinicians."
• "We ought to love people and use things; the essence of immorality is to love things and use people."

Notable works

• 1954 Morals and Medicine N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• 1966 Situation Ethics: The New Morality, Philadelphia: Westminster Press. (translated into 5 languages)
• 1974 The Ethics of Genetic Control: Ending Reproductive Roulette. New York: Doubleday.