Director of Graduate Studies
Department: Medical Ethics

Office: 215-573-2602
Fax: 215-573-3036
Email:
fiester@mail.med.upenn.edu
Links:
Bioethics, Sexuality, and Gender Identity
Chimeras and Hybrids in Comparative
European and International Research -
Natural Scientific, Ethical, Philosophical
and Legal Aspects
Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania
Masters of Bioethics Program at the University of Pennsylvania
Education:
Ph.D. (Philosophy)
University of Pennsylvania
A.M. (Sociology)
Harvard University

Description of BIOETHICS Expertise

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Clinical ethics, sexuality & gender identity, mediation, and animals & bioethics.

ABOUT:
Autumn Fiester is the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (http://www.med.upenn.edu/mbe/) and the Associate Director of the Penn Center for Bioethics. She is the co-editor of The Penn Center Guide to Bioethics (with Vardit Ravitsky and Arthur Caplan, Springer 2009), which was given the PROSE Award from the American Association of Publishers and named the Outstanding Academic Title for 2009 by CHOICE Magazine from the American Library Association. She is the founding Director of the Penn Center Mediation Project, which promotes clinical ethics mediation as a conflict-resolution method in both formal clinical ethics consultations and ethics conflicts at the bedside (http://www.med.upenn.edu/bioethics/mediation.shtml). She is also the Director (with Lance Wahlert) of the newly launched Bioethics, Sexuality, and Gender Identity Project that seeks to demarcate a sub-field within bioethics that focuses on the intersection of LGBTQI issues and medical ethics (http://www.queerbioethics.org/).

Fiester has been a member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities task force on clinical ethics consultation professionalization (Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs Standing Committee). She is a consultant for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Ethics Service. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Singapore CENTRES Project (Clinical Ethics Network, Training, Research and Support Initiative) aimed at developing the capacity of clinical ethics committees in Singapore. She is a member of GABEX: Global Alliance of Biomedical Ethics Centers sponsored by the University of Tokyo, designed to create a collaborative, international network of bioethics centers of excellence (http://cbel.jp/modules/pico/gabexnet.html). She was also a contributing author of the EU-sponsored CHIMBRIDS project (Chimeras and Hybrids in Comparative European and International Research), which produced recommendations to the EU federation about the ethical issues surrounding chimera and hybrid research (Springer 2009).

Selected Publications

Imadojemu, S. and Fiester, A. "Dermatoethics: Are There Moral Obligations to Cosmetic Dermatology Patients Beyond Informed Consent?," Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, in press.

Wahlert, L. and Fiester, A. “Queering Bioethics: LGBTQI Personhood and the Reification of Self in the Medical Marketplace,” The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Volume 9, No. 3, September 2012, in press.

Fiester, A. “Mediation and Advocacy,” American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, No. 8, August 2012, in press.

Wahlert, L. and Fiester, A. "Gender Transports: Privileging the "Natural" in Gender Testing Debates for Intersex and Transgender Athletes," American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, No. 7, July 2012, in press.

Fiester, A. "The 'Difficult' Patient Reconceived: An Expanded Moral Mandate for Clinical Ethics," American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, No. 5, May 2012: 2-7.

Wahlert, L. and Fiester, A. "Questions We Should Not Ask: IVF Treatment for an HIV-Discordant, Transgender Couple," Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Volume 21, No. 2, Spring 2012, 281-289.

Wahlert, L. and Fiester, A. "Queer Bioethics: Why Its Time Has Come," Bioethics, Volume 26, No. 1, January 2012: i-iii.

Fiester, A. "What Does 'Patient-Centered Care' Demand in Serious Cultural Conflict?," Academic Medicine, Volume 87, No. 1, January 2012: 20-24.

Fiester, A. "Ill-Placed Democracy: Ethics Consultations and the Moral Status of Voting," Journal of Clinical Ethics, Volume 22, No. 4, Fall 2011: 363-372.

Wahlert, L. and Fiester, A., "Failing Those at Ground Zero... Again: American Public Health Responses to AIDS and 9/11," American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, No. 9, September 2011: 1-2.

Wahlert, L. and Fiester, A. “De-Queering HIV Testing Practices and the Reinforcement of Stigma,” American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, No. 4, April 2011, 41-43.

Fiester, A. and Düwell, M. “Ethical Issues Raised by Chimeras and Hybrids: An Overview.” Chimbrids: Chimeras and Hybrids in Comparative European and International Research, J. Taupitz and M. Weschka, eds., Heidelberg: Springer, 2009, pp. 63-78; 199-204; 300-302; 504-507.

Fiester, A. “Justifying the Principle of Restraint in Animal Biotechnology,” American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 8, No. 6, June 2008, 36-44.

Fiester, A. “Mediation and Moral Aporia,” Journal of Clinical Ethics, Volume 18, No. 4, Winter 2007, 355-356.

Fiester, A. “Why the Clinical Ethics We Teach Fails Patients,” Academic Medicine, Volume 82, No. 7, July 2007, pp. 684-689.

Fiester, A. “A Response to Kang and Leaf,” Nature Biotechnology, Volume 25, No. 5, May 2007, 506.

Fiester, A. "The Failure of the Consult Model: Why ‘Mediation’ Should Replace ‘Consultation,’” American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 7, Number 2, 2007, pp. 31-32.

Fiester, A. “Casuistry and the Moral Continuum: Evaluating Animal Biotechnology,” Politics and the Life Sciences, Volume 25, No. 1-2, January 19, 2007, pp. 15-22.
Reprinted in J. Garrett, ed., The Ethics of Animal Research: Exploring the Controversy, MIT, 2011.

Fiester, A. “The Omega-3 Pig: Why This Little Piggy Should Not Go To Market,” Nature Biotechnology, 24, No 12, December 2006, pp. 1472-1473.

Ulrich, C., Wallen, G., Fiester, A., and Grady, C. "Respondent Burden in Clinical Research: When Are We Asking Too Much of Subjects?" IRB: Ethics and Human Research, Volume 27, No. 4, 2005, pp. 17-20.

Fiester, A. “Creating Fido’s Twin: Is There Moral Legitimacy in Pet Cloning?” Hastings Center Report, 35, No. 4, 2005, pp. 34-39.
Reprinted in S. Satris, ed., Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Moral Issues, 11th ed., Dushkin, 2007; reprinted in S.. Armstrong and R. Botzer, eds., The Animal Ethics Reader, 2nd ed, Routeledge, 2008; and, reprinted in S. Satris, ed., Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Moral Issues, 12th ed., Dushkin, 2009.

Fiester, A. “A Review of the Ethical Issues in Animal Cloning,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Volume 48, No. 3, Summer 2005, pp. 328-343.