Zitrins Establish Professorship in Bioethics

By James Devitt

Arthur Zitrin (GSAS ’41, MED ’45) and Charlotte Marker Zitrin (WSC ’39, MED ’43) have pledged $2 million to NYU to establish the Arthur Zitrin Professorship in Bioethics, which is held by philosophy professor William Ruddick. Ruddick also heads the new NYU Center for Bioethics, based in the Faculty of Arts and Science and with faculty affiliates throughout the University.

Arthur Zitrin, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at NYU’s School of Medicine, served as an associate dean for student affairs at NYU and, for 15 years, was director of psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital. Zitrin has made several contributions to medical ethics, including founding and chairing the ethics committees of two of NYU’s affiliated hospitals and a monthly ethics colloquium. He has also funded fellowships for medical students to take a fifth year for a master’s degree in the Department of Philosophy. Zitrin was a 1999 recipient of the Solomon A. Berson Medical Alumni Achievement Award for these and other services.

Ruddick initiated the “Philosophers in Medical Centers” project at the School of Medicine in the late 1970s and has given courses in medical ethics, philosophy of medicine, and issues of life and death there and in the philosophy department for several decades. He is currently writing a book, Medical Pieties: Life, Hope, and Trust.

In October, Zitrin chaired the opening session of a day-long symposium, “Broadening Bioethics: Life, Health, and Environment,” launching the Center for Bioethics. Ruddick’s inaugural lecture, “Conjoining Medical and Environmental Ethics: How to Mix Red and Green,” was followed by talks by Daniel Wikler of Harvard’s School of Public Health, Peter Singer of Princeton’s Center for Human Values, and Dale Jamieson, director of NYU’s Environmental Studies Center.