Oral History Interview, Norman Fost (1031)

Abstract

In his five 2009 interviews with Robert Lange, Dr. Norman Fost discusses his early life in the New York metropolitan area, his education at Princeton, Yale, and Johns Hopkins, and his teaching, research and service while at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He details the personal and professional motivations that caused him to explore the emerging field of medical ethics, and chronicles a number of significant media events, public commissions, and powerful people that were involved in his career as a bioethicist. He also discusses how he and others developed the IRB and medical ethics as a curriculum and service area at UW and a number of controversial viewpoints and cases in which he was involved during his tenure at the university. This interview was conducted for inclusion in the University of Wisconsin Oral History Project.