Membership

Affinity Groups

These special interest groups are a great way to connect with other ASBH members who share your academic or clinical focus or practice in a similar setting.

ASBH affinity groups plan presentations and educational programs; develop position papers, guidelines, and practice standards; monitor and recommend responses to regulatory legislation and ethical issues; and review and recommend research priorities.

If you wish to participate in an Affinity Group, join ASBH now and then follow these steps to join as many affinity groups as you like.

  1. Log into "My Profile" with your ASBH username and password.
  2. Click "Account" towards the top-left of the page, then "Personal Info." Scroll to the bottom of the page to the "Affinity Groups" section. 
  3. Opt into any group(s) that interest you by checking the boxes to the left of each listing.
  4. Click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. 

Affinity Groups and Their Leaders

Animal Bioethics
Providenza Loera Rocco, JD HEC-C

Artificial Intelligence and Bioethics
Kristin Kostick-Quenet, PhD 
This affinity group provides an inclusive forum for developing and exchanging ideas across disciplines related to the ethical development and deployment of health-related AI systems in both clinical and nonclinical (e.g. home, self-care) settings to promote health.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Astro-Ethics
Vasiliki Rahimzadeh, PhD
The Astro-Ethics Affinity Group promotes innovative scholarship on the clinical, ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) unique to human space exploration; draws on diverse philosophical traditions, policy development approaches and ways of knowing to provide a diverse and inclusive platform for discourse on space ethics.

Bioethics and Christian Theology
Travis Pickell, MDiv PhD; Jaime Konerman-Sease, PhD HEC-C
The Bioethics and Christian Theology Affinity Group provides opportunities for deeper engagement on bioethics issues from within the Christian tradition through lectures, discussion, and networking.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Cancer Ethics
Emily Hahn, MD; Jamie Riches, DO
The Cancer Ethics affinity group aims to promote collaboration across the multitude of disciplines that care for people with cancer and their loved ones, and to provide a forum for scholarship, education and inter-disciplinary professional development.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Clinical Ethics Consultation
Joyeeta Dastidar, MD HEC-C; Stowe Teti, MA HEC-C

The Clinical Ethics Consultation affinity group aims to serve as a meeting space for ethics consultants to discuss salient and/or challenging topics. It also serves as a means to network, build working groups on topics of interest, and run mentorship programs and quarterly virtual meetings.

 

Clinical Research Ethics Consultation
Jake Earl, PHD HEC-C; Liza Dawson, PhD MA
CRECAG serves ASBH members interested in addressing ethical issues that arise in clinical research by organizing annual discussions of current ethical issues or other developments in the field and by facilitating professional development of research ethics consultants.

Current and Former Clinical Ethics Fellows
Lexi White, HEC-C
This group is intended for current, former, and prospective clinical ethics fellows to discuss issues in clinical ethics fellowships.

Dental Ethics
Tom Holt, DDS MS HEC-C; Alma Clark, MSHCE DDS HEC-C
Provide a space for consideration of unique ethical dilemmas associated with dental healthcare delivery.

Disability Ethics
Kevin Timpe, PhD; Kevin Mintz, PhD; Ally Peabody Smith, PhD
The DEAG examines ethical issues in disability like healthcare disparities, stigma, legal capacity, and gene editing. It promotes research and public engagement to advance disability rights, challenge ableism, and develop ethical frameworks valuing disability as human diversity.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

ELSI (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications)
Gabriel Lazaro-Munoz, JD PhD; Daphne Oluwaseun Martschenko
The ELSI Affinity Group brings together scholars interested in ethical, legal, and social implications of developments in genomics.

Environmental Bioethics 
Paul J. Cummins, PhD; Kyle Ferguson, PhD
The Environmental Bioethics Affinity Group works to advance understanding of the ethical implications of ecology, climate change, and the environment with individual and public health.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Ethics and Humanities Educators in the Health Professions and Residency Training
Allison Lyle, MD; Sheria Wilson, MD
The Ethics and Humanities Educators in the Health Professions and Residency Training (EHEHPRT) Affinity Group is for ethics educators for health professions and for trainees beyond the undergraduate role. The annual affinity group meeting hosts speakers to share their innovative methods for ethics education.

Feminist Approaches to Bioethics
Lindsey Grubbs; Devora Shapiro, PhD
The FAB Affinity Group is guided by feminist commitments to identify and work against oppression, to connect theory and practice, to recognize embodiment, and to understand feminism and oppression as intersectional. We meet annually at the ASBH conference and host periodic online activities.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Health and Science Policy
Virginia Brown, PhD MA; Jorge Riveria Agoston
The Health and Science Policy Affinity Group brings together people who share an interest in moving theory into practice. This affinity group will focus on understanding how ethics commitment to the fair and just distribution of resources can be centered in our individual and collective work.

Health Humanities
Erin Lamb, PhD; Katherine Burke

The Health Humanities Affinity Group serves to foster collaboration among all who are interested in the health humanities, seeking to promote new ideas in scholarship, research, teaching, activism, and more, and to create opportunities for growth for health humanities within ASBH.

History of Medical Ethics
Robert Baker, PhD
The History of Medical Ethics Affinity Group organizes and presents topics on the history of biomedical ethics. It also serves as a meeting point for ASBH members interested in or doing research on the history of biomedical ethics.

Holocaust Genocide Contemporary Bioethics 
Jay Malone, MD, PhD; Rebecca Feinberg, JD
Exploring the legacy of health professional involvement in Nazism and the Holocaust for contemporary bioethics.

Hospice & Palliative Care
Sirisha Perugu, MD HEC-C; Gina Piscitello, MD
The Hospice & Palliative Care Affinity Group's purpose is to address the broad range of ethical challenges encountered in palliative care practice and provide a sense of community through inclusivity and the shared experiences of other members who practice in similar settings or have common interests.

Immigration
Brian Tuohy, PhD; Lynette Martins, JD, MBe
This group discusses some of the normative issues that arise as a result of movement of individuals across borders.

Islamic Ethics
Basel Tarab, MD MBe; Fahmida Hossain, PhD HEC C
Promote the underdeveloped filed of Islamic Bioethics and provide a platform for Muslim bioethicists to collaborate on advancing the Islamic Bioethics.

Jewish Bioethics
Molly Sinderbrand, PhD
We provide a space to discuss Jewish approaches to bioethics on various subjects and to provide support for members experiencing anti-Semitism.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

LatinX Bioethics
Nicole Martinez-Martin, JD PhD 

The purpose of this affinity group is to cultivate discussion regarding bioethics issues that are relevant to Latinx communities, as well as promote connection and visibility for voices in the Latinx bioethics community.

Law & Bioethics
Leah Eisenberg, JD

A place to discuss the intersections of law and bioethics, particularly clinical ethics.

LGBTQIA+ Bioethics
Theodore Schall, PhD MSW MBE; Elizabeth Dietz, PhD
This group brings together scholars with expertise and interest in the health and well-being of sexual and gender minorities.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Medical Decision Making
Kimberly E. Sawyer, HEC-C
Creates a community within ASBH of people interested in and/or pursuing work related to medical decision making, including things like shared decision making tools.

Neuroethics
Peter Zuk, PhD
The Neuroethics Affinity Group supports high-quality research and teaching on ethical, social, legal, and philosophical implications of emerging neurotechnologies.

Nursing
Brenda Barnum, MA; Michael Martin, MBe
The Nursing Affinity Group is designed to be the nursing connection to ASBH by fostering a supportive community for nurses who are interested in ethics, collaboratively planning the yearly meeting at ASBH, and supporting informal networking both in person and online.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Organizational Ethics
Emily H. Grime, MS BS HEC-C; David Meyers, MD MBE FACEP
OEAG is a dynamic community that unites leaders from diverse backgrounds and institutions that serves as a collaborative hub where professionals come together to share, discuss, and advance the best practices, policies, procedures, and innovative ideas in the realm of organizational ethics.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Pediatric Ethics
Jenny Kingsley, MD; Alyssa Burgart, MD
The Pediatric Ethics Affinity Group is community that is dedicated to understanding and addressing ethical issues that affect children and families. We meet virtually once a month to check in, share resources, and discuss cases and policies related to children's health and wellbeing.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Pharmacy and Ethics
Linda Uchal, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP
The group is a resource to members interested in ethics in pharmacy practice, pharmaceutical research, medication development, policy, access, patient care, and education and to assist individuals in the response to ethical issues in the use of medications.

Philosophy
Karola Kreitmair, PhD, MSc, HEC-C; Nir Ben-Moshe
The Philosophy Affinity Group serves as a forum for those interested in philosophically informed biomedical ethics. We host a session at the annual ASBH conference, as well as additional online sessions, and welcome work from any philosophical perspective, tradition, or methodology.

Philosophy of Medicine
Bryan Cwik; Bryan Pilkington, PhD
Provide a forum for discussion and networking for bioethicists either interested in or actively working in philosophy of medicine

Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Daniel Moseley, PhD; Jonathan Bolton, MD
The Psychiatry and Psychotherapy affinity group aims to promote scholarship and scholarly discussion related to ethical issues in psychiatry, psychotherapy and across the allied mental/behavioral health professions.

Public Health
Carina Fourie; Jennifer Tillman, PhD; Andrea Kalfoglou, PhD
Public health is what we do collectively to assure conditions for people to be healthy. Public health ethics concerns the obligations, values, & commitments that flow from this public service imperative. Join us to discuss & enact our shared interest in improving understanding & advancing practice.

Race & Culture/Ethnicity
Daphne Oluwaseun Martschenko, PhD; Donal E. Carter, DBe, MDiv
This group engages in honest discourse about issues related to socially assigned race, and culture and ethnicity in the context of bioethics and determinants that drive ongoing inequities in education and health status.

Reproduction
Shameka Poetry Thomas; Julia Kolak, PhD
Understanding the ethical considerations of reproductive health on a broad spectrum and the life course across a variety of health specializaions and scientific disciplines.

Rural Bioethics
Stephanie Larson, PhD MA HEC-C
The ASBH Rural Bioethics Affinity Group is dedicated to facilitating the exchange of ideas, promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration, and generation of knowledge around a wide array of bioethical topics that are relevant to rural spaces, places, cultures, and communities.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Social Work
Sophia Fantus, PhD, MSW
The purpose of the Social Work Affinity Group is twofold: (1) we are to identify ethical conflict and ethical dilemmas that impact social work practice, policy, and education in the field; and (2) to address current and evolving bioethical issues from a social work perspective.

Student Interest
Samantha Chipman, MA
The Student Interest Affinity Group serves as a resource for students and trainees to learn how to get involved in ASBH, to hear about upcoming bioethics and health humanities opportunities, and to provide a network of support.

Surgical Ethics
Sundeep Grandhe, MD PHD HEC-C
The Surgical Ethics Affinity Group provides a forum to address ethical challenges in surgical practice, focusing on patient-centered care, decision-making, and emerging technologies. Activities include educational sessions, resource sharing, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
ASBH members may request to join this group's listserv here. Once a member of the group, messages may be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Undergraduate Teaching
Angela Wentz Faulconer, PhD; Jason Eberl, PhD
The Undergraduate Teaching Affinity Group’s focus is excellence in undergraduate teaching. We provide a forum to share and learn from others with similar teaching responsibilities in bioethics and the humanities.  

ListServes

Many affinity groups offer participation in ListServes in specialized areas. ASBH members may also participate in the ASBH ListServe in which members share announcements of scholarly meetings and events of general interest to the field of bioethics and humanities. Refer to the benefits of ASBH membership for more information.

Leaders can connect with ASBH Education and Operations Manager Lauren Winters at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions. Those interested in starting a new affinity group can reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to request an application form and more information about the approval process.