Norman Fost, MD, MPH
Norman Fost, MD, MPH, is a graduate of Princeton (AB 1960), Yale (MD 1964) and Harvard (MPH 1973). He completed residency training in pediatrics and two years as chief resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was a fellow in the Harvard Program in Law, Medicine and Ethics in 1972-73. Since 1973, he has been at the University of Wisconsin, where he is Professor of Pediatrics and Bioethics; director of the Program in Medical Ethics, which he founded in 1973; vice chair of the Department of Medical History and Bioethics; and works as a general pediatrician. He has been chair of the Hospital Ethics Committee for 24 years, and chaired the Health Sciences IRB for 31 years. He was director of the Pediatric Residency Training Program for 21 years; founder and director of the Child Protection Team for 33 years; and vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics for 10 years (1985 to 1995).
He has published numerous articles on a range of issues in medical ethics, including human subjects research, genetic screening, performance enhancing drugs, euthanasia of handicapped newborns and access to human growth hormone. He has taught courses on ethical and regulatory issues in human subjects research at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and for seven years has taught a similar course at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. He has served on numerous federal committees and commissions on a variety of ethical and regulatory issues. He currently serves on the FDA's Advisory Committee on Children's Drugs, and is chair of the FDA Pediatric Ethics Subcommittee. In 2005 he served on the National Academy of Science Committee on Guidelines for Stem Cell Research.
In 1993 he was appointed to President Clinton's Health Care Task Force. From 1994 to 1998, he was an elected member of the Princeton University Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was awarded the Nellie Westermann Prize for Research Ethics, and was runner-up in 1976 and 1989. In 2003, he was awarded the William G. Bartholome Award for Excellence in Ethics by the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2006, he received a lifetime achievement award, created by the U.S. DHHS Office of Human Research Protection, for excellence in human research protection. In 2007, he was the first recipient of the Patricia Price Browne Award in Bioethics from the Oklahoma University Medical School.
He has been a frequent guest on national television shows, including Nightline, Frontline, Crossfire, Donahue, The News Hour, Good Morning America, 20/20, ESPN Sports Center, HBO, Larry King Live and Oprah.