Biography

    Michael Alan Grodin, M.D., is Professor of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights in the Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights at the Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Grodin is the recipient of the distinguished Faculty Career Award for Research and Sholarship, as well as having received 20 teaching awards including the Norman A. Scotch Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Grodin is Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine.  In addition, Dr. Grodin is a Professor in the Graduate Division of the Department of Religious and Theological Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the Founder and  Director of the Project on Medicine and the Holocaust at the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies where he is a member of the senior faculty in Judaic Studies.  He completed his B.S. degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his M.D. degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, his postdoctoral and fellowship training at UCLA and Harvard, and he has been on the faculty of Boston University for the past 35 years.

    Dr. Grodin is the Medical Ethicist at Boston Medical Center and for thirteen years served as the Human Studies Chairman for the Department of Health and Hospitals of the City of Boston. He is a fellow of the Hastings Center, served on the board of directors of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for the Philosophy and History of Science. He was a member of the National Committee on Bioethics of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Committee on Ethics of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.  Professor Grodin served on the Ethics Committee of the Massachusetts Center for Organ Transplantation, was a consultant to the National Human Subjects Protection Review Panel of the National Institutes of Health AIDS Program Advisory Committee, and is a consultant on Ethics and Research with Human Subjects for the International Organizations of Medical Sciences and the World Health Organization. He is a member of the Ethics Review Board of Physicians for Human Rights.  Dr. Grodin is the Co-Founder of Global Lawyers and Physicians: Working Together for Human Rights, Co-Director of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights: Caring for Survivors of Torture and he has received a special citation from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in recognition of his "profound contributions - through original and creative research - to the cause of Holocaust education and remembrance." The Refugee Center which he Co-Directs received the 2002 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project for "sensitivity and dedication in caring for the health and human rights of refugees and survivors of torture." He is a Member of the Global Implementation Project of the Istanbul Protocol Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and an Advisor to UNESCO.  Dr. Grodin was the 2000 Julius Silberger Scholar and is an elected member of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and the American Psychoanalytic Association.  Twice named one of America's Top Physicians, he has received 4 national Humanism in Medicine and Humanitarian Awards for "integrity, clinical excellence and compassion", "outstanding humanism in medicine and integrity as a faulty member" and "compassion, empathy, respect and cultural sensitivity in the delivery of care to patients and their families."

    Dr. Grodin has delivered over 500 invited national and international addresses, written more than 200 scholarly papers, and edited or co-edited 6 books:  The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code:  Human Rights in Human Experimentation and  Children as Research Subjects:  Science, Ethics and Law of the Bioethics Series of Oxford University Press, a book in the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science Series of Kluwer Academic Press entitled Meta-Medical Ethics:  The Philosophical Foundations of Bioethics, and three books published by Routledge one Health and Human Rights: A Reader selected as 2nd  of the top 10 humanitarian books of 1999, Perspectives on Health and Human Rights, and an international textbook entitled Health and Human Rights in a Changing World.  Professor Grodin is presently working on two books, Medical Ethics in the Shadow of the Holocaust  and he has recently completed the manurscript of a book entitled Jewish Medical Resistance in the Ghettos and Camps During the Holocaust. Dr. Grodin's primary areas of interest include: the relationship of health and human rights, medicine and the holocaust, bioethics and the philosophy of psychiatry and psychoanalysis.


Courses Taught in Current Semester

Courses Taught in Other Semesters

In the Media

Stories

Publications
    1. Highfield ES, Lama P, Grodin MA, Kaptchuk TJ, Crosby SS. Acupuncture and traditional chinese medicine for survivors of torture and refugee trauma: a descriptive report. J Immigr Minor Health. 2012 Jun; 14(3):433-40.
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    2. Longacre M, Silver-Highfield E, Lama P, Grodin M. Complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of refugees and survivors of torture: a review and proposal for action. Torture. 2012; 22(1):38-57.
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    3. Macduff S, Grodin MA, Gardiner P. The use of complementary and alternative medicine among refugees: a systematic review. J Immigr Minor Health. 2011 Jun; 13(3):585-99.
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    4. Blumhofer RD, Shah N, Grodin MA, Crosby SS. Clinical issues in caring for former chattel slaves. J Immigr Minor Health. 2011 Apr; 13(2):323-32.
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    5. Singh HK, Scott TE, Henshaw MM, Cote SE, Grodin MA, Piwowarczyk LA. Oral health status of refugee torture survivors seeking care in the United States. Am J Public Health. 2008 Dec; 98(12):2181-2.
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    6. Grodin MA, Piwowarczyk L, Fulker D, Bazazi AR, Saper RB. Treating survivors of torture and refugee trauma: a preliminary case series using qigong and t'ai chi. J Altern Complement Med. 2008 Sep; 14(7):801-6.
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    7. Crosby SS, Apovian CM, Grodin MA. Hunger strikes, force-feeding, and physicians' responsibilities. JAMA. 2007 Aug 1; 298(5):563-6.
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    8. Crosby SS, Mashour GA, Grodin MA, Jiang Y, Osterman J. Emergence flashback in a patient with posttraumatic stress disorder. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2007 Mar-Apr; 29(2):169-71.
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    9. Crosby SS, Norredam M, Paasche-Orlow MK, Piwowarczyk L, Heeren T, Grodin MA. Prevalence of torture survivors among foreign-born patients presenting to an urban ambulatory care practice. J Gen Intern Med. 2006 Jul; 21(7):764-8.
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    10. Moreno A, Piwowarczyk L, LaMorte WW, Grodin MA. Characteristics and utilization of primary care services in a torture rehabilitation center. J Immigr Minor Health. 2006 Apr; 8(2):163-71.
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    11. Chaudhari BP, Grodin MA. What about proxies? Health Aff (Millwood). 2005 Nov-Dec; 24(6):1686-7; author reply 1687-8.
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    12. Glantz L, Grodin M. Undue inducement. Lancet. 2005 Oct 15-21; 366(9494):1356-7.
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    13. Norredam M, Crosby S, Munarriz R, Piwowarczyk L, Grodin M. Urologic complications of sexual trauma among male survivors of torture. Urology. 2005 Jan; 65(1):28-32.
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    14. Moreno A, Grodin MA. Torture and its neurological sequelae. Spinal Cord. 2002 May; 40(5):213-23.
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    15. Crosby S, Grodin MA. The forum. The challenges of cross-cultural research in the international setting. Ethics Behav. 2002; 12(4):371-2, 376-8.
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    16. Moreno A, Piwowarczyk L, Grodin MA. msJAMA: human rights violations and refugee health. JAMA. 2001 Mar 7; 285(9):1215.
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    17. Grodin MA, Alpert JJ. Commentary: Surrogate decision making: a broader agenda. Pharos Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Med Soc. 2001; 64(2):17-9.
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    18. Grodin MA, Laurie GT. Susceptibility genes and neurological disorders: learning the right lessons from the human genome project. Arch Neurol. 2000 Nov; 57(11):1569-74.
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    19. Moreno A, Grodin MA. Photo/essay: the not-so-silent marks of torture. JAMA. 2000 Aug 2; 284(5):538.
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    20. Piwowarczyk L, Moreno A, Grodin M. Health care of torture survivors. JAMA. 2000 Aug 2; 284(5):539-41.
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    21. Nathanson JA, Grodin MA. Eugenic sterilization and a Nazi analogy. Ann Intern Med. 2000 Jun 20; 132(12):1008.
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    22. Roche PA, Grodin MA. The ethical challenge of stem cell research. Womens Health Issues. 2000 May-Jun; 10(3):136-9.
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    23. Grodin MA. Is informed consent always necessary for randomized, controlled trials? N Engl J Med. 1999 Aug 5; 341(6):449; author reply 450.
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    24. Roche PA, Grodin MA. Why single out pregnant women? Comments on ACOG's recommendations for involving pregnant women in research. Womens Health Issues. 1999 Jul-Aug; 9(4):202-5.
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    25. Glantz LH, Annas GJ, Grodin MA, Mariner WK. Research in developing countries: taking "benefit" seriously. Hastings Cent Rep. 1998 Nov-Dec; 28(6):38-42.
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    26. Annas GJ, Grodin MA. An ethical code for everybody in health care. A universal declaration of patients' rights is a complementary approach. BMJ. 1998 May 9; 316(7142):1459.
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    27. Annas GJ, Grodin MA. Human rights and maternal-fetal HIV transmission prevention trials in Africa. Am J Public Health. 1998 Apr; 88(4):560-3.
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    28. Glantz LH, Grodin MA. Ethics of placebo-controlled trials of zidovudine to prevent the perinatal transmission of HIV in the Third World. N Engl J Med. 1998 Mar 19; 338(12):839; author reply 840-1.
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    29. Holmes-Farley SR, Grodin MA. Foreword: law, medicine and socially responsible research. Am J Law Med. 1998; 24(2-3):153-62.
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    30. Lane H, Grodin M. Ethical issues in cochlear implant surgery: an exploration into disease, disability, and the best interests of the child. Kennedy Inst Ethics J. 1997 Sep; 7(3):231-51.
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    31. Annas GJ, Grodin MA. There's no right to assisted suicide. NY Times (Print). 1997 Jan 8; A15.
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    32. Grodin MA, Annas GJ. Legacies of Nuremberg. Medical ethics and human rights. JAMA. 1996 Nov 27; 276(20):1682-3.
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    33. Grodin MA. Women's health and end-of-life decision making. Womens Health Issues. 1996 Sep-Oct; 6(5):295-301.
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    34. Annas GJ, Grodin MA. Reflections on the fiftieth anniversary of the Doctors' Trial. Health Hum Rights. 1996; 2(1):7-21.
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    35. Grodin MA. Halakhic dilemmas in modern medicine. J Clin Ethics. 1995; 6(3):218-21.
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    36. Grodin MA. Religious attitudes towards genetics: opening a larger debate. J Clin Ethics. 1995; 6(3):246-7.
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    37. Grodin MA. Religious exemptions: brain death and Jewish law. J Church State. 1994; 36(2):357-72.
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    38. Grodin MA, Annas GJ, Glantz LH. Medicine and human rights. A proposal for international action. Hastings Cent Rep. 1993 Jul-Aug; 23(4):8-12.
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    39. Grodin MA. Religious advance directives: the convergence of law, religion, medicine, and public health. Am J Public Health. 1993 Jun; 83(6):899-903.
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    40. Grodin MA. The evolution of informed consent: beyond an ethics of care. Womens Health Issues. 1993; 3(1):11-3.
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    41. Meyers RM, Grodin MA. Decisionmaking regarding the initiation of tube feedings in the severely demented elderly: a review. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1991 May; 39(5):526-31.
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    42. Brett A, Grodin M. Ethical aspects of human experimentation in health services research. JAMA. 1991 Apr 10; 265(14):1854-7.
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    43. Grodin MA. Informed consent and medical benefit selection. J Occup Med. 1991 Mar; 33(3):298-9.
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    44. Grodin MA. Surrogate motherhood and the best interests of the child. Womens Health Issues. 1991; 1(3):135-7.
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    45. Kaufman J, Glantz LH, Grodin MA, Bersoff DN. Case vignette: Niki goes to school -- autonomy, control, and psychiatric hospitalization. Ethics Behav. 1991; 1(4):273-81.
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    46. Grodin MA. The Nuremberg Code and medical research. Hastings Cent Rep. 1990 May-Jun; 20(3):4.
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    47. Annas GJ, Grodin MA. The Nazi doctors and the Nuremberg Code: relevance for modern medical research. Med War. 1990 Apr-Jun; 6(2):120-3.
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    48. Sassower R, Grodin MA. A conceptual approach to child maltreatment. Pediatrician. 1990; 17(2):74-8.
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    49. Grodin MA. Patient choice and fetal therapy. Womens Health Issues. 1990; 1(1):18-20.
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    50. Grodin MA, Alpert JJ. Children as participants in medical research. Pediatr Clin North Am. 1988 Dec; 35(6):1389-401.
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    51. Sassower R, Grodin MA. Beyond medical ethics: new directions for philosophy and medicine. J Med Humanit Bioeth. 1988 Fall-Winter; 9(2):121-34.
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    52. Todres ID, Guillemin J, Grodin MA, Batten D. Life-saving therapy for newborns: a questionnaire survey in the state of Massachusetts. Pediatrics. 1988 May; 81(5):643-9.
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    53. Grodin MA. A 19th century medical gift: the Herbert Leslie Burrell Ether Prize of 1896. J Clin Anesth. 1988; 1(2):130-4.
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    54. Sassower R, Grodin MA. Scientific uncertainty and medical responsibility. Theor Med. 1987 Jun; 8(2):221-34.
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    55. Sassower R, Grodin MA. Response: collaborations between physicians and humanists--beyond the metaphors. J Med Humanit Bioeth. 1987 Spring-Summer; 8(1):52-5.
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    56. Grodin MA, Sassower R. Whose patient is this, anyway? IRB. 1987 Mar-Apr; 9(2):6-7.
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    57. Baum E, Grodin MA, Alpert JJ, Glantz L. Child sexual abuse, criminal justice, and the pediatrician. Pediatrics. 1987 Mar; 79(3):437-9.
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    58. Ende J, Grodin MA. Do not resuscitate: an issue for the elderly. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1986 Nov; 34(11):833-4.
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    59. Grodin MA, Kaminow PV, Sassower R. Ethical issues in AIDS research. QRB Qual Rev Bull. 1986 Oct; 12(10):347-52.
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    60. Clarke DF, Werbowsky OL, Grodin MA, Shargel L. Conversion from intravenous to sustained-release oral theophylline in pediatric patients with asthma. Drug Intell Clin Pharm. 1986 Sep; 20(9):700-3.
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    61. Grodin MA, Zaharoff BE, Kaminow PV. A 12-year audit of IRB decisions. QRB Qual Rev Bull. 1986 Mar; 12(3):82-6.
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    62. Sassower R, Grodin MA. Epistemological questions concerning death. Death Stud. 1986; 10(4):341-53.
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    63. Reece RM, Grodin MA. Recognition of nonaccidental injury. Pediatr Clin North Am. 1985 Feb; 32(1):41-60.
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    64. Grodin MA, Markley WS, McDonald AE. Use of an institutional ethics team on a pediatric service. QRB Qual Rev Bull. 1985 Jan; 11(1):16-9.
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    65. Norman RA, Grodin MA. Injuries from break dancing. Am Fam Physician. 1984 Oct; 30(4):109-12.
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    66. Grodin MA. Epiglottitis. J Emerg Med. 1983; 1(1):13-9.
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    67. Hochman HI, Grodin MA, Crone RK. Dehydration, diabetic ketoacidosis, and shock in the pediatric patient. Pediatr Clin North Am. 1979 Nov; 26(4):803-26.
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    68. Grodin MA. Ethical issues in perinatology--the rights of the fetus and newborn. J Clin Child Psychol. 1978; 7(3):184-7.
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    69. Lerman RL, Grodin MA. Necrotizing stomatitis in a pediatric burn victim. ASDC J Dent Child. 1977 Sep-Oct; 44(5):388-90.
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