Douglas W. Hanto, MD, PhD, MBE

Douglas W. Hanto, MD, PhD, MBE is the Lewis Thomas Professor of Surgery Emeritus at Harvard Medical School. He is also a Member of the Harvard Center for Bioethics and Chair of its Surgical Ethics Working Group (SEWING). He received a BS from St. Olaf College, an MD from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and PhD from the University of Minnesota. He completed general surgery training and a transplant surgery fellowship at the University of Minnesota. He was Chief of the Division of Transplantation and Clinical Director of the Transplant Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center from 2001-2012. He received his MBE from HMS in 2021. He has been a clinician-scientist involved in patient care, clinical and basic research, and the training and mentoring of medical students, surgery residents, and transplant fellows for more than thirty-five years with interests in post-transplant malignancies, ischemia-reperfusion injury, immunosuppression, and transplant ethics. He is interested in disparities in health care and in organ transplantation, ethics of organ allocation, medical assistance in dying, and using fiction to discuss ethical principles, issues, and controversies. He is completing his first novel. He has lectured widely, served on many journal editorial boards, is a senior director of the American Board of Surgery, and has served as Chair of the Ethics Committee of both The Transplantation Society (International) and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. He has held many other leadership positions in the field of surgery and transplantation. He has published over 250 articles, book chapters, editorials, and reviews.