Benjamin S. Wilfond, MD

Benjamin S. Wilfond, MD, is the director of the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and professor and chief of the Division of Bioethics in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is also adjunct professor in the UW Department of Bioethics and Humanities.

Dr. Wilfond is the chief of the Bioethics Consultation Service and an attending physician in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He also coordinates Research Bioethics Consult Service for the Institute of Translational Health Sciences.

He attended New Jersey Medical School and completed his pediatric residency and his fellowship in pediatric pulmonology and medical ethics at the University of Wisconsin. Prior to moving to Seattle in 2006, he has held faculty appointments at the University of Arizona, National Institutes of Health, and Johns Hopkins University. He is the former chair of the intramural NHGRI IRB and has 25 years of experience on IRBs and DMCs.

He is currently working on ethical and policy issues related to the implementation of genetic testing for reproductive purposes, the role of disabilities in clinical decision‐making, the impact of research ethics consultation in clinical research, and the understanding of public attitudes about research on medical practices. He is the PAST president of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors and the chair for Pediatrics Working Group for the NHGRI Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium.