Norman Fost Lectureship on Skepticism and Critical Thinking

Norman Fost, MD, MPH, professor emeritus of pediatrics and bioethics, joined the Department of Pediatrics in 1973 and founded the Program in Medical Ethics that same year. He had decided early in his education at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins, that he wanted to combine pediatrics and bioethics, even though there existed no such program at the time. Fost realized he would have to create his own niche combining pediatrics and bioethics. From his first year and throughout the next 53 years with the Departments of Pediatrics and Medical History and Bioethics, he accomplished that.

This combination allowed Fost to be involved as a pediatric clinician, at the bedside of patients, as well as involved intellectually and pragmatically with leading scholars, including physicians, lawyers, and philosophers, academia, and government, addressing questions of bioethics nationally.  As the field evolved, programs were established in medical schools throughout the country, and ethics committees came to be required in all hospitals and medical institutions. Fost considers himself fortunate beyond measure to have experienced the satisfaction and rewards of contributing to that evolution.  

In addition to founding the Program in Medical Ethics within the Department of Medical History and Bioethics in 1973, Fost was Chair of the Hospital Ethics Committee for 31 years, Chair of the Health Sciences IRB for 31 years; Director of the Pediatric Residency Training Program for 21 years; founder and director of the Child Protection Program for 33 years; and Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Medical History and Bioethics for 10 years.