The Dignity of Risk at the Bedside and in Research
Dr. Debjani Mukherjee, Adira Hulkower, and Dr. Joseph Fins will present on the dignity of risk—the principle that individuals have the right to make choices and take risks as part of living a full and self-determined life. Drawing from their contributions to the Perspectives in Biology and Medicine special issue Disability, Social Justice, and Dignity of Risk at 50 Years, the presenters will define and contextualize the concept, emphasizing its relevance across both clinical care and research ethics.
Debjani Mukherjee, PhD, HEC-C is an associate professor of medical ethics in clinical medicine and clinical rehabilitation medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and senior clinical ethicist at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Mukherjee is a clinical/community psychologist and clinical ethicist with over 30 years of clinical experience working in 9 hospital settings in Buffalo, Boston, Urbana, Chicago, Paris, Kolkata (Calcutta), and New York City - in a number of roles: psychometrist, Clinical Neuropsychology intern, brain injury support group facilitator, psychotherapist, Researcher, Ethics consultant, Director of an Ethics program and medical school faculty. She was invited to help start the first Center for Clinical Ethics in Paris France in and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to India to study long-term adjustment to brain injury. In 2023, she was elected a Hastings Center Fellow. Her scholarly interests are in the ethical dilemmas posed by neurological impairments, the emotional impact of medical decisions, the practice of clinical ethics consultation, and ethical concerns in rehabilitation medicine.
Joseph J. Fins is The E. William Davis, Jr. M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics and Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College where he is a Tenured Professor of Medicine, Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry, Professor of Medical Ethics in Neurology, Professor of Medical Ethics in Rehabilitation Medicine, and Professor of Health Care Policy and Research. He is the founding chair of the Ethics Committee of New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center where he is an Attending Physician and Director of Medical Ethics. A member of the Adjunct Faculty of Rockefeller University and Senior Attending Physician at The Rockefeller University Hospital, he co-directs the Consortium for the Advanced Study of Brain Injury (CASBI) at Weill Cornell Medicine and Rockefeller. At Yale Law School he is the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Medicine, Bioethics and the Law at Yale Law School and a Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School in addition to his appointment at Weill Cornell Medicine. He has held visiting professorships at Princeton University, Johns Hopkins, Wesleyan University, and La Complutense in Madrid. Dr. Fins is immediate past President of the International Neuroethics Society, past President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and current Chair of the Hastings Center Board of Trustees.
The author of over 500 papers, chapters, essays, and books, his most recent volume is Rights Come to Mind: Brain Injury, Ethics and The Struggle for Consciousness (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Dr. Fins is an NIH BRAIN Initiative funded investigator, a co-author of the 2007 Nature paper describing the first use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the minimally conscious state and 2024 Nature Medicine showing further efficacy in moderate to severe brain injury. He was principal investigator on a BRAIN Initiative grant entitled, "Cognitive Restoration: Neuroethics and Disability Rights" and is currently a MPI on a R0-1 entitled, “Post-trial Access, Clinical Care, Psychosocial Support, and Scientific Progress in Experimental Deep Brain Stimulation Research.” His work has centered on neuroethics and the disability and civil rights of individuals with brain injury.
Dr. Fins is an elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, and by Royal Appointment an Academico de Honor (Honored Academic) of the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain. Dr. Fins was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Wesleyan University and a Doctor of Medical Sciences from the Medical College of Wisconsin and was the recipient of the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association Award of Distinction.
Dr. Fins is currently working on a biography of the physician-humanist, Dr. Lewis Thomas.
Adira Hulkower is the Director of the Bioethics Consultation Service at Montefiore Medical Center where her days are devoted to guiding patients, families, and healthcare teams through complex ethical dilemmas that arise at the bedside. In addition to her clinical role, Adira holds the position of Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where she teaches bioethics to first, second and third-year medical students. Adira is faculty in the Montefiore Einstein Masters in Bioethics program and course directs clinical ethics and mediation intensives. She is director of the bioethics fellowship. Adira has lectured internationally on topics including clinical ethics, end-of-life care decision-making, healthcare delivery for the unhoused, narrative medicine, and decision-making for unrepresented patients. Adira holds a JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a Masters in Bioethics from Columbia University.