Remembering Nancy Dubler, Foundational Leader in Bioethics
On Sunday, April 14, 2024, the Einstein Montefiore community lost a beloved professor emerita of family and social medicine and founding director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics when Nancy Dubler passed away. She was 82.
Following work as a staff attorney at South Brooklyn Legal Services and at the Vera Institute of Justice, as an independent consultant, and as a consulting attorney and adjunct faculty member at the Bank Street College of Education, Nancy joined Einstein and Montefiore in 1975, as director of the division of legal and ethical issues in healthcare. In 1977, she became an Einstein faculty member, as a lecturer in epidemiology and social medicine (which later became the departments of epidemiology & population health and family and social medicine).
Over a career spanning more than 30 years, she rose through the ranks, ultimately appointed professor of epidemiology & population health in 1992 and professor of family and social medicine in 2007. When she retired in 2011, she was distinguished with the appointment of professor emerita of family and social medicine.
Establishing the Importance of Bioethics in Healthcare
A lawyer by practice, Nancy founded the Bioethics Consultation Service at Montefiore Medical Center in 1978 and served as its director from then until 2008. The service, which is a vital arm of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics, provides support for analysis of difficult clinical cases presenting ethical issues in the healthcare setting. At its core, the center operates at the intersection of medicine, law, and public policy, actively addressing issues that have the potential to enhance patient care, research with human subjects, and health policy.
“We are deeply indebted to Nancy for her enormous contributions to our center and the field of bioethics,” said Elizabeth Chuang, M.D., M.P.H., current director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics, as well as associate professor of medicine and the Dr. Shoshanah Trachtenberg Frackman Faculty Scholar in Biomedical Ethics at Einstein.
She added, “Nancy was a generous colleague, mentor, and friend, and we are honored to continue our work in the spirit of her dedication to compassion and excellence.”
Added fellow colleague Adira Hulkower, J.D., current director of the Montefiore Bioethics Consultation Service, “Long before I was tasked with leading the service that Nancy created, I was a recipient of her tremendous warmth and grace. She was a mentor-extraordinaire, forever invested in cultivating the success of young bioethicists. Her influence was powerful and vast, and we are all so honored to be a part of her legacy.”
Influence Through Education
In 1995, Nancy co-founded the center’s Certificate Program in Bioethics and the Medical Humanities with the late David Rothman and was its director through 2008. As the longest-running bioethics educational program in the tri-state area, it is a testament to her dedication to and passion for exploring intricate ethical matters that can impact patient care and research. This year-long interdisciplinary program has trained roughly 1,000 health and legal professionals from hospitals across the New York region, including from Sloan Kettering, New York University and Health and Hospitals Corporation.
Nancy was perhaps best known as one of the founders of the field of clinical ethics, and for work incorporating mediation into bioethics consultation. Her book Bioethics Mediation, written with Carol Liebman, remains the definitive work in the field.
“Nancy was a super advocate for those who have been marginalized by society,” noted Edward R. Burns, M.D., executive dean and professor at Einstein. “She taught and wrote about the healthcare of patients with AIDS, as well as care for prisoners. Her persuasive powers employing the law and ethics influenced hundreds of Montefiore Einstein physicians through the decades.”
She was author of numerous articles and books on ethical issues that also included research with human subjects, termination of care, home care and long-term care, organ transplantation, geriatrics, and adolescent medicine. She founded and was longtime editor of the Journal of Prison and Jail Health: Medicine, Law, Corrections and Ethics.
A Pioneer Devoted to Her Craft
Nancy’s vast knowledge and expertise informed ethics in research and included numerous projects in which she served as a principal investigator. She was widely sought as a member for bioethics committees and institutional review boards at various New York hospitals, research institutions, and nursing homes, was a consultant for ethics at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (the nation’s largest public hospital system), and gave her time for community service, including serving on several boards of directors. Among the honors recognizing her contributions, Nancy was a Fellow of the Hastings Center and a Traveling Fellow of the World Health Organization and of the Ford Foundation.
Nancy earned her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and her law degree from Harvard Law School. She was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1968.
She is survived by Walter, her husband of 57 years; their children, Josh and Ariela; their daughter-in-law and son-in-law Lisa and Jesse; and their five grandchildren, Zahir, Charlie, Ilan, Mira, and Lev. While she will be missed greatly, Nancy’s influence will live on through her teachings, her grace, and her leadership.
Additional Tribute
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Posted on: Thursday, May 02, 2024