Allen Buchanan, James B Duke Professor of Philosophy and James B. Duke Professor of Public Policy Studies

Contact Info:

Office Location:	203C West Duke Building
Office Phone:	+1 919-660-2426
Email Address:

Specialties:

Political Philosophy
Bioethics
Philosophy of Social Science

Research Interests:

Recent news items (as of December 1, 2007):

• I’m happy to say I’ve just been appointed the Uehiro Lecturer at Oxford University for 2009. Previous Uehiro Lecturers include Peter Singer, Jonathan Glover, Jeff McMahan, and Frances Kamm. The Uehiro Lectures are published in a special series by Oxford University Press. My lectures will be on the ethics of using biotechnologies to enhance ‘normal’ human capacities.
• Recently accepted journal articles and book chapters, forthcoming: “Human Enhancement and Human Development,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal “Enhancement and Human Nature,” Bioethics “Constitutional Democracy and The Rule of International Law: Are They Compatible?” with Russell Powell,  in The Journal of Political Philosophy, Jeff Dunoff and Joel Trachtman, eds. “Fidelity to Constitutional Democracy and International Law,’ with Russell Powell, in The Cambridge Handbook on International Law, David Armstrong, ed.
• I’ve completed a rewarding year as the first Scholar in Residence at Duke’s Institute for Genome Science and Policy, working on the ethics of using biotechnologies to enhance ‘normal’ human capacities.
• I recently returned from a fascinating conference at Oxford on the Philosophy of International Law. Papers from the conference will appear in The Philosophy ofInternational Law, edited by Samantha Besson (Faculty of Law, University of Fribourg,Switzerland, and John Tasioulas, Dept. of Philosophy, Oxford. My paper is entitled“The Legitimacy of International Law.”
• I’m just returned from two back-to back bioethics conferences in Hong Kong, where I presented two papers on the ethics of enhancement: one on human nature and enhancement. My stay there gave me a deeper appreciation of Confucian Ethics, but also convinced me that I don’t like fried chicken feet.
• I’m enjoying the fruits of reproductive free-riding: I’m having a great time watching my grandson (age 3) develop (he’s the adopted son of my stepson)

Academic History
Allen Buchanan is James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy. He graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College, Columbia University in 1970 and received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina in 1975. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, the University of Arizona, and the University of Wisconsin, before coming to Duke in 2002.

Areas of Specialization

• Bioethics, with emphasis on ethical issues in the application of genetic technologies to human beings and on distributive justice in health care
• Political Philosophy, including work on the ethics of secession and on legitimacy
•  Philosophy of International Law, including work on the moral foundations of international law, human rights, and global governance

Publications
Over one hundred published articles

The following books:
Marx and Justice: The Radical Critique of Liberalism (1982)
Ethics, Efficiency, and the Market (1985)
Splicing Life: The Ethics of Genetic Engineering With Human Beings, with others at the President’s Commission on Medical Ethics (1993)
Genetic Screening and Testing, with others at the President’s Commission on Medical Ethics, 1983
Making Health Care Decisions, with others at the President’s Commission on Medical Ethics, 1983
Securing Access to Health Care, with others at the President’s Commission on Medical Ethics, 1983.
Deciding for Others: The Ethics of Surrogate Decision-Making, with Dan W. Brock(1989)
Secession: The Morality of Political Divorce (1991)
From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice (with Dan W. Brock, Norman Daniels, and Daniel Wikler (2000)
Justice, and Self-Determination: Moral Foundations for International Law (2003)

Not Just Theory!
Throughout my career, I’ve combined theoretical work with engagement with public policy at the state, national, and international level. Here are a few examples:

• Staff Philosopher (yes, that was the official title!) for the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Behavioral and Biomedical Research, 1982
• Consultant to the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S Congress; co-author of a study on ethical issues arising from the impending epidemic of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
• Staff Consultant to the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, 1994; wrote ethical framework chapter for Committee’s book-length report on grossly unethical experiments performed by U.S. government on thousands of Americans between 1946 and 1972.
• Consultant to the Transitional Government of Ethiopia; advised on the writing of the secession clause in the new Ethiopian Constitution, 1993
• Consultant to the European High Commissioner on National Minorities in the Hague, On alterative modes of self-determination for national minorities, short of full independence, 1996
• Commissioned by Canadian Government, Office of the Privy Council, to write a commentary on the Canadian Supreme Court Reference Ruling on the Possible Secession of Quebec, 1997.
• Served on Advisory Council for the National Human Genome Research Iinstitute, 1997-2000.
• Founder and Director of the Consortium on Pharmacogenetics, an academic/industry Cooperative study of ethical and regulatory issues of advances in knowledge concerning the relationship between genotypes and the effects of drugs, 2000.

Current Research Projects

• I’m writing a short book on the ethics of using biotechnologies to enhance ‘normal’ human capacities (Uehiro Lectures; see Recent News Items above)
• I’m doing preliminary work for a book on the ethics of believing, from a social moral epistemology standpoint
• I’m continuing to work on the moral underpinnings of international human rights law