Nir Eyal, DPhil
Contact Information
Harvard Medical School
Division of Medical Ethics
c/o HSPH
FXB Building, 6th floor
651 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Email: nir_eyal@hms.harvard.edu
Nir Eyal is Assistant Professor in Global Health and Social Medicine (Medical Ethics) at the Harvard Medical School. His primary appointment is at Harvard University’s campus-wide Program in Ethics and Health. He received his D.Phil. in Politics at Oxford University, his M.A. in Philosophy from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his B.A. in Philosophy and History from Tel-Aviv University.
Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, where he was Instructor for two years, Dr. Eyal was the Harold T. Shapiro Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioethics at the Center for Human Values of Princeton University. Previously, he was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Clinical Bioethics of the National Institutes of Health. His earlier background is in ethics and political philosophy.
Ongoing Research
Dr. Eyal is completing a book that defends a consequentialist approach to respect for persons and applies that approach to normative questions in bioethics and political theory. In bioethics, he is writing an entry on informed consent and articles on what, if anything, justifies the requirement of informed consent; on whether payment for organs violates human dignity; on when genetic selection is permissible; and on how to diminish physician “brain drain” in resource-poor countries. Other research surrounds egalitarian theory, self-ownership, political domination, and consequentialism.
Publications
- “Is the Body Special? A review essay on Cécile Fabre, Whose Body is it Anyway?” Forthcoming in Utilitas, early 2008, along with Fabre’s response.
- “Physician Brain Drain–Can Anything Be Done?”. Co-authored with Samia Hurst, MD. Forthcoming in Public Health Ethics, spring 2008.
- “What Is It Like to Be A Bird? Wikler and Brock on the Ethics of Population Health.” In R. Green & S. Jauss (eds.), Global Bioethics: Issues of Conscience for the Twenty-First Century. Forthcoming. New York: Oxford University Press.
- “Poverty Reduction and Equality with Strong Incentives: The Brighter Side of False Needs.” In: J. Ryberg, T. S. Petersen & C. Wolff (eds.), New Waves in Applied Ethics. Forthcoming 2007. London: Palgrave-MacMillan.
- “Egalitarian Justice and Innocent Choice.” Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy 2(1), January 2007: 1-18.
- “If You’re An Egalitarian, How Come You’re So Inegalitarian about Your body?,” Iyyun 55, July 2006: 299-309.
- “‘Perhaps the Most Important Primary Good’: Self-Respect and Rawls’s Principles of Justice,” Politics, Philosophy, and Economics 4(2), June 2005: 195-219.
- “Review of Susan L. Hurley, Justice, Luck, and Knowledge,” Economics and Philosophy 21, April 2005: 164-171.