Joseph F. Fletcher

Who was Joseph F. Fletcher?

Joseph Francis Fletcher was an American professor who founded the theory of situational ethics in the 1960s, and was a pioneer in the field of bioethics. Fletcher was a leading academic involved in the topics of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, eugenics, and cloning. Ordained as an Episcopal priest, he later identified himself as an atheist.

Fletcher was a prolific professor, teaching, participating in symposia, and completing ten books, and hundreds of articles, book reviews, and translations.

He taught Christian Ethics at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at Harvard Divinity School from 1944 to 1970. He was the first professor of medical ethics at the University of Virginia and co-founded the Program in Biology and Society there. He retired from teaching in 1977.

In 1974, the American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

He served as president of the Euthanasia Society of America from 1974 to 1976. He was also a member of the American Eugenics Society and the Association for Voluntary Sterilization.