Ernlé Young, Ph.D.
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Ernlé Young is Emeritus Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics (SCBE), and Professor of Medicine (Biomedical Ethics).
He has been a force in biomedical ethics, chairing the ethics committee at Stanford University Hospital and serving many patients and families confronting moral quandaries.
Dr. Young earned both his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, in 1958 and 1962, respectively. He earned his Ph.D. at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, in theological ethics, graduating in 1971.
After returning to South Africa, the land of his birth, he became actively involved in working against the apartheid system, and left the country at the end of 1973 after learning that he was about to be banned by the nationalist government.
Stanford recruited him at the end of 1973, and he arrived at the beginning of 1974 to begin teaching biomedical ethics in the Stanford University School of Medicine and developing a Chaplaincy Department in the Stanford University Medical Center.
He became a citizen of the United States in 1979. At the end of 1989, he co-founded the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics, of which he continues to be co-director, relinquishing his role as chaplain to the medical center in order to devote all his time to the field of biomedical ethics. He continues to teach five courses in the Medical School, and serves as the ethics consultant to and chairs the ethics committee of the Stanford University Hospital and the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Health Care System. In 1984 he was a Visiting Fellow at Green College, Oxford.
Dr. Young is co-author of A Time to Be Born, A Time to Die: Ethics and Conflicts in An Intensive Care Nursery , and author of Alpha and Omega: Ethics at the Frontiers of Life and Death. He co-authored and edited a book, Ethics and Perinatology: Issues and Perspectives , for the Oxford University Press. He is the author of numerous chapters and original articles.
Honors
Richard W. Lyman Award, Stanford Alumni Association (6/94); John P.
McGovern Medal Award, American Medical Writers Association (10/93); Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (6/93);
John J. Conley Lectureship Award, American Society for Head and Neck Surgery (4/90); Fellowship Award, World Rehabilitation Fund, New York, which led to the publication of his monograph, Societal Provision for the Long-Term Needs of the Mentally and Physically Disabled in Britain and in Sweden, Relative to Decision-Making in Newborn Intensive Care Units (10/82).
Consultation and Teaching
Dr. Young's clinical ethics consultation activities span Stanford Health Services, Stanford School of Medicine, the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Health Care System, the Central California Veterans Administration Health Care System, Fresno, and the University of California, Fresno. He continues to expand his teaching of ethics to undergraduates, fellows, housestaff, and nursing staff.
Dr. Young teaches bioethics as part of the undergraduate Human Biology curriculum, where he lectures, for example, on maternal/fetal ethical conflicts, end of life decisions, and dynamics of death and dying. He also serves as thesis advisor to several undergraduate and graduate students each year.
In the medical school, Dr. Young teaches in courses required for first year students, as well as in the "Preparation for Clinical Medicine" modules required for second year students, on pulmonary and critical care and neurology. He continues to teach elective bioethics courses in the winter and spring quarters. Dr. Young teaches and directs a required course on issues of integrity in scientific research entitled "Responsible Conduct of Research" for federally-funded postdoctoral fellows each year in the winter quarter. He also teaches on the main campus in the Continuing Studies Department and the Master of Liberal Arts Program.
Dr. Young conducts monthly seminars in the medical/surgical ICUs at Stanford and the VA. He also leads regular discussions for anesthesia and OB/GYN residents, and offers an elective course on bioethical issues for emergency medicine residents. In addition, he constantly gives invited lectures on various topics at universities and to professional societies and community organizations.
Dr. Young continues his work with the intensive nursing education program, presenting three seminars on a different clinical unit each month, as well as a regular twice-weekly review of all patients in the medical/surgical ICU, which affords an opportunity for ethical issues to be considered by caregivers in a preemptive fashion.
Dr. Young is the principal investigator at Stanford on a national, multi-center NIH-funded three-year study, "Effectiveness of Ethics Interventions in the ICU Setting," now in its first year.
Dr. Young serves as an ethics consultant to NASA, the California Medical Association's Council on Ethical Affairs, and the Geron Corporation, Menlo Park, California and is Chair of the Data Safety Monitoring Board of Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, California.
Recent Publications
- Young EWD. Life and death in the ICU: ethical considerations. In Civetta JM, Kirby RR, Taylor RW, eds. Critical Care . J.B. Lippincott Company, 1997.
- Young EWD, Marcus FS, Drought T, et al . "Report of the Northern California
- Conference for Guidelines on Aid in Dying: Definitions, Differences, Convergences, Conclusions," The Western Journal of Medicine , 1997, 166(6):381-388.
- Young EWD. "Physician-Assisted Suicide - Overview of the Ethical Debate,"
- The Western Journal of Medicine , 1997, 166(6)402-406.
- Young EWD. "Ethics in the Outpatient Setting: New Challenges and Opportunities," Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics , 1997, 6(3):293-298.
- Young EWD. "Ethical Issues at the End of Life," Stanford Law & Policy Review , Spring 1998, 9(2):267-288.
- Lebacqz K, Mendiola MM, Peters T, Young EWD, Zoloth-Dorfman L. "Research
- with Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Ethics Considerations," Hastings Center Report , March-April 1999, 31-36.
- Young EWD. "Appropriateness of Intensive Care Application," Fetal and Neonatal Brain Injury: Mechanisms, Management, and the Risks of Practice , 3 rd edition, Stephenson DK and Sunshine P, eds. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
- Young EWD, "Changing Economics and Clinical Ethical Decision-Making: A View from the Trenches," Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare , Spring 2000, 9(2):284-287.
- Young EWD, "Physician-Assisted Suicide: Where to Draw the Line?" Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare , Summer 2000, 9(3):407-410
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