People | Faculty
Lisa S. Parker, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Human Genetics
Graduate School of Public Health
University of Pittsburgh
Director, Master of Arts Program in Bioethics
Contact:
412-647-5780
Address:
Center for Bioethics and Health Law
3708 Fifth Avenue
Medical Arts Bldg., Suite 300
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Related Sites:
Lisa Parker, a philosopher, is Associate Professor of Human Genetics and Behavioral and Community Health Sciences in the Graduate School of Public Health. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Philosophy, a member of the Steering Committee of the Women’s Studies Program, and a fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Science. She serves as Director of Graduate Education for the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, where she is Director of the interdisciplinary Master of Arts in Bioethics program in the School of Arts and Sciences, and co-director of the Area of Concentration in Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine. Dr. Parker has published extensively on ethical concerns related to the design and conduct of research, particularly genetic research, as well as on aesthetic surgery, confidentiality, informed consent, and organ transplantation. With a national working group of the Association of Schools of Public Health, Dr. Parker edited Ethics and Public Health: Model Curriculum (Association of Schools of Public Health, 2003). She is co-author of the second edition of Informed Consent: Legal Theory and Clinical Practice (Oxford, 2001) and is co-editor of Mutating Concepts, Evolving Disciplines: Genetics, Medicine, and Society in the Philosophy and Medicine Series published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002.
Dr. Parker’s current research interests include ethical issues arising in scientific research generally and in genetic research and the provision of genetic services in particular, as well as ethics in public health, feminist approaches to bioethical issues, and critical analysis of bioethics as a social practice and field of inquiry. With colleagues in the Department of Psychiatry, she is involved in a community-based project to assess the attitudes of older adults regarding genetic research related to depression. She is also participating in a project to assess changes in young women’s sense of self and social identity following receipt of positive breast cancer genetic test results. She has provided research ethics training in Kolkata and New Delhi, India through two training programs of the Fogarty International Center of the NIH, and serves on the study section of the ELSI Program of the NHGRI (the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute), as well as the Expert Scientific Panel for the eMERGE (Electronic Medical Record and Genomics) Network of the NHGRI.
Education
BA – Philosophy, Hillsdale College (1984)
MA – Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh (1986)
PhD – Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh (1990)
Awards, Honors, and Fellowships
Nellie Westerman Prize in Ethics, American Federation for Clinical Research (1990)
Andrew Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, Woodrow Wilson Foundation (1984-1990)
Research and Professional Interests
Research ethics, particularly genetic and psychiatric research
Informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality
Feminist approaches in bioethics
Bioethics as a social practice
Teaching Activities
Bioethics
Gender, Ethics, and the Body
Ethical and Philosophical Issues in Genetics
Ethical and Legal Issues in Human Genetics (with Alan Meisel)
Seminar in Thesis Research
Session instructor, Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice, MS-4 elective
Selected Publications
Parker LS. The future of incidental findings: should they be viewed as benefits? Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2008; 36(2): 341-351.
Mishra NN, Parker LS, Nimgaonkar VL, Deshpande SN. Privacy and the Right to Information Act, 2005. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2008; 5(4): 158-161.
Shirts BH, Parker LS. Changing interpretations, stable genes: responsibilities of patients, professionals, and policymakers in the clinical interpretation of complex genetic information. Genetics in Medicine 2008; 10(11): 778–783.
Parker LS, Satkoske VB. Managing conflicts of interest: is informed consent an appropriate model and disclosure an appropriate remedy? Journal of the American College of Dentists 2007; 74(2): 19-26.
Parker LS. Best laid plans for offering results go awry. American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB) 2006; 6(6): 22-23.
Parker LS. Information(al) matters: bioethics’ agenda and the boundaries of the public and the private. Social Philosophy and Public Policy 2002; 19(2): 83-112.
Parker LS. Ethical issues in bipolar disorders pedigree research: privacy concerns, informed consent, and grounds for waiver. Bipolar Disorders 2002; 4: 1-16.
Sauder R, Parker LS. Autonomy’s limits: living donation and health-related harm. Cambridge Quarterly 2001; 10(4): 409-418.
Parker LS, Arnold RM. Confidentiality: revealing trends in bioethics. Bioethics Forum 1999; 14(3/4): 32-42.
Vogel VG, Parker LS. Ethics of chemoprevention clinical trials. Cancer Control 1997; 4(2): 142-149.
Parker LS, Majeske RA. Standards of care and ethical concerns in genetic testing and screening. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology 1996; 39: 873-884.
Parker LS. Beauty and breast implantation: how candidate selection affects autonomy and informed consent. Hypatia 1995;10:183-201.
Parker LS: Breast cancer genetic screening and bioethics’ critical gaze. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1995; 20: 313-337.
Parker LS: Majeske RA. Incidental findings: patient knowledge, rights, and preferences. Journal of Clinical Ethics 1995; 6: 177-180.
Parker LS, Lidz C. Familial coercion to participate in genetic family studies: is there cause for IRB interventions? IRB: A Review of Human Subjects Research 1994; 16(1,2): 6-12.
Parker LS. Social justice, federal paternalism, and feminism: breast implantation in the cultural context of female beauty. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 1993; 3: 57-76.
Selected Presentations
Ethics of Psychiatric Genetic Research. International Symposium on Ethics, Culture and Population Genetics, Indian Society of Human Genetics. New Delhi, India: March 18, 2009.
Reconceptualizing and Managing Incidental Findings of Research. Bioethics Grand Rounds. Cleveland Clinic. Cleveland, OH: January 6, 2009; Translating ELSI: Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genomics Case Western Reserve University and NHGRI. Cleveland, OH: May 1-3, 2008.
Ethics and Genetic Testing of Children: Indications, Interests, and Implications. Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio State University. Columbus, OH: May 8, 2008.
Conducting Ethical Research across Cultures, Communities, and Contexts. Cultural Competency in Genetics Research, South Texas Psychiatric Genetics Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center. San Antonio, TX: September 27, 2007.
Informed Consent, Commercialization, and Conflict of Interest (ICCI). American College of Dentists Annual Meeting. Las Vegas, NV: October 16, 2006.
Bioethics’ Evolution: Confidentiality, Privacy, and Why Information Matters. Nancy K. Rhoden Memorial Lecture Series, Oberlin College. Oberlin, OH: March 11, 1999.
