Events

During times of crisis, institutions tend to focus on rebuilding public trust, while neglecting the underlying reasons for the loss of trust. Marks argues that loss of trust constitutes one kind of institutional crisis—which he calls “opsis.” Loss of integrity and trustworthiness constitutes a second and more insidious form of crisis—which he characterizes as “sepsis.” Just as medical sepsis in the human body is a critical condition that endangers life, ethical sepsis poses an existential threat to institutions. This seminar provides a set of tools for preventing, diagnosing, and treating ethical sepsis in a variety of institutions that are essential for the delivery of health care and the protection of public health.

Jonathan H. Marks is Director of the Bioethics Program at the Pennsylvania State University where he is Professor of Bioethics, Humanities, Law, and Philosophy, and Affiliate Faculty in the School of International Affairs. He is also a fellow of the Hastings Center, and a barrister and academic member of Matrix Chambers, London. Marks received his M.A., B.C.L. (equivalent to J.D., LL.M.) from the University of Oxford. He was a Greenwall Fellow in Bioethics and Health Policy at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities from 2004–2006. He has held the Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Ethics at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with the Lab on Institutional Corruption. Marks has published widely in journals of ethics, law, medicine, and public health. His book, The Perils of Partnership: Industry Influence, Institutional Integrity, and Public Health (Oxford University Press, 2019), was a finalist for the North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award. He is currently working on a book on trust, trustworthiness, and the ethics of “crisismanagement.” Marks has participated as an expert on ethics and human rights in meetings of the World Health Organization, the National Academies, U.S. Defense Health Board, and the Royal Society, London.