Alexander Capron

Alex Capron began writing about ethical and legal issues in organ donation and transplantation in 1972, and a number of his 300+ articles and dozen books have dealt with those topics, as did Defining Death (1981), a report of the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research which he directed; that report recommended the Uniform Determination of Death Act. Having previously taught at Yale, Georgetown, and the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the faculty of the University of Southern California in January 1985, and retired in January 2023 as University Professor, holder of the Scott H. Bice Chair in Healthcare Law, Policy and Ethics in the Gould School of Law, and Professor of Law and Medicine in the Keck School of Medicine. Between 2002 to 2006 was the first Director of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights and Health Law at the World Health Organization. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and of the American Law Institute.