James F. Childress, PhD

John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics Emeritus,

University of Virginia

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James F. “Jim” Childress, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, University Professor Emeritus and John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics Emeritus. He is the co-author with Tom Beauchamp of the classic, field-defining bioethics text, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, currently in its 8th edition. Prof. Childress’ areas of expertise include the foundational and principles approach to bioethics, Christian social ethics, organ donation and transplantation, end-of-life decision-making, and public bioethics.

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Professor Childress describes childhood experiences growing up near Mt. Airy, North Carolina in the 1940s and 50s. He discusses his Quaker upbringing, the Civil Rights Movement, and his work as a youth director in New Haven, CT, while he was a graduate student at Yale in the 1960s. Childress shares his experience and perspective on the intersection of religion and social justice, ethical considerations with organ allocation, and the role of bioethics in society. Other topics discussed include various ethical challenges in public policy and healthcare, pacifism, violence prevention, bioethics, and religion. He describes his decades-long collaboration with Tom Beauchamp writing and updating eight editions of Principles of Biomedical Ethics, a book that aimed to provide a systematic statement of ethical principles for research involving human subjects. The entire scope of his career—scholarship, service, and teaching—is also covered. The interview concludes with a discussion of the importance of public bioethics, public health decision-making in the context of individual autonomy, structural injustices, and social determinants of health.

You can find full audio, transcript, and other materials in the Moral Histories Archive.

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