• Adjunct Professor, Global Health
  • Professor, Bioethics and Humanities
  • Adjunct Professor, Law School
  • Adjunct Professor, Philosophy

Seattle, WA
United States

Phone Number: 
206-616-1865
Fax: 
Email: 
nsjecker@uw.edu
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Biography 

Nancy S. Jecker, PhD is a Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She holds Adjunct Professorships at the University of Washington School of Law, Department of Global Health, and Department of Philosophy. Dr. Jecker is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science and Department of Philosophy and Honorary Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Centre for Bioethics. She was awarded the PhD in Philosophy from the University of Washington, after first earning masters' degrees in Philosophy from both Stanford University and the University of Washington, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Stanford University.

Dr. Jecker’s research focuses on individual and societal aging, justice, human dignity, medical futility and global perspectives in philosophy and bioethics. Dr. Jecker has published over 200 articles and 4 books. Her most recent book is Ending Midlife. Bias: New Values for Old Age (Oxford University Press, 2020). Dr. Jecker's other books include Wrong Medicine: Doctors, Patients and Futile Treatment, 2nd Edition, with  Lawrence Schneiderman (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, E-Book by Amazon Digital Services, Inc., Chinese translation by Ho-Chi Book Publishing Company); Bioethics: An Introduction to the History, Methods, and Practice, 3rd edition, with Albert Jonsen and Robert Pearlman (Jones and Bartlett, 2011); and Aging and Ethics: Philosophical Problems in Gerontology (Humana Press, distributed internationally by J. Wiley and Sons and by Chapman and Hall, E-Book by Springer Publishers. 

Dr. Jecker has collaborated with colleagues throughout East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe. She is a two time recipient of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science International Fellow award (2020 and 2018); Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore (2018); Scholar-in-residence at the Brocher Foundation (2017); Visiting Professor at The University of Bucharest Research Institute (2017); Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2017); and keynote speaker at the Israeli Ministry of Health (2017). Dr. Jecker is a three time Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship awardee, most recently (2020) from the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, Como, Italy.

Dr. Jecker was elected to the Board of Directors for the International Association of Bioethics (2019-2022) and to the Board of Directors for the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (2016-2019).

Health Topics 
  • Bioethics
  • COVID-19
  • Global Health Governance
  • Health Disparities
  • Health Policy
  • Social Justice and Human Rights
Publications 

(1) Jecker NS, ENDING MIDLIFE BIAS, Oxford University Press, 2020

(2)Schneiderman LJ, Jecker NS, WRONG MEDICINE, 2ND EDITION, Johns Hopkins University Press (2020, Japanese translation; 2015, Chinese translation; 2011, English 2nd ed.; 1995, English, 1st ed.).

(3) Jecker NS, 2020. YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME: SOCIABLE ROBOTS FOR OLDER ADULTS IN AN AGE OF GLOBAL PANDEMICS, Ethics and Information Technology. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-020-09546-y

(4) Jecker NS, Wightman AG, Diekema DS, 2020. "PRIORITIZING FRONTLINE WORKERS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, American Journal of Bioethics 20, DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1764140

(5) Shah SK, Miller FG, Darton TC, Duenas D, Emerson C, Lynch HF, Jamrozik E, Jecker NS, Kamuya D, Kapula K, Kimmelman J, MacKay D, Memoli MJ, Murphy SC, Palacios R, Richie TL, Roestenberg M, Saxena A, Saylor K, Selgelid MJ, Vaswani V, Rid A, 2020. "Ethics of Controlled Human Infection to Study COVID-19." Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.abc1076