Contact: NBAC
Telephone: (301) 402-4242

Eric M. Meslin, Ph.D., was named Executive Director of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) by Harold T. Shapiro, Ph.D., NBAC’s Chairman and President of Princeton University.

"Following a nationwide search, we are indeed fortunate to have been able to recruit a bioethicist of Dr. Meslin’s experience and caliber," said Dr. Shapiro. "I am confident that he will provide the intellectual leadership necessary to ensure NBAC’s success," he added.

"I look forward to working with the Commissioners as they continue to address some of the country’s most challenging bioethics issues," said Dr. Meslin.

Dr. Meslin received his BA in Philosophy from York University (Toronto) and both his MA and Ph.D. from the Bioethics Program in Philosophy at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Following completion of the Ph.D., he returned to Canada to become the Bioethicist (1988-91), Associate Director (1991-94) and then Director (1994-96) of the Clinical Ethics Centre at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, a 1200-bed adult, tertiary care University of Toronto teaching hospital. At the same time, he was Assistant Director (1991-95) and then Deputy Director (1995-96) of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. He held academic appointments as Assistant Professor in Philosophy, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Health Administration at the University of Toronto, and remains a Member of the Joint Centre for Bioethics, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. During 1994-95, Dr. Meslin was a Visiting Fellow at Green College at the University of Oxford and the Visiting Clinical Ethicist at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital, where he established the UK’s first clinical ethics program.

Shortly after returning from the UK, he left the University of Toronto to join the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute where he was Program Director for Bioethics Research and Special Assistant to the Director for Trans-NIH ELSI Activities.

Dr. Meslin has authored more than 35 articles and book chapters focusing on various topics in research ethics, clinical ethics, and health policy.

The National Bioethics Advisory Commission was established by Executive Order signed by President Clinton in October of 1995. Its function is to provide advice and make recommendations to the National Science and Technology Council and to other appropriate government entities regarding the appropriateness of departmental, agency, or other governmental programs, policies, assignments, missions, guidelines, and regulations as they relate to bioethical issues arising from research on human biology and behavior; and applications, including the clinical applications, of that research.