Mary McDonough, JD, PhD

Mary McDonough, JD, PhD is currently a freelance writer and bioethicist. She earned a law degree from the University of Denver and a PhD in Ethics with a specialty in Bioethics from the Graduate Theological Union. After working as a Legal Services attorney where she focused on medical public entitlement law and workers’ rights cases for the Migrant Farmworkers Unit, she was elected to the Montana State Legislature where she served in the House of Representatives for two years. She returned to school and received her PhD. In 2016, she completed a fellowship in Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. Over the years she has taught Foundational Ethics and Law and Bioethics, worked as a researcher/writer for The Hastings Center, and tutored college students. Her current focus is on ethical concerns around gene editing, the moral implications of AI, and general legal issues in bioethics. She has also written a book on the ethically questionable use of market mechanisms to organize health care, and articles on social justice and health care.