Michele Goodwin, SJD, LL.M.

Dr.  Michele Bratcher Goodwin is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Medical School.  She is an elected member of the Hastings Center (the organization central to the founding of bioethics),  the American Law Institute, as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  She is an American Law Institute Adviser for the Restatement Third of Torts: Remedies.  She is also a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. She is the recipient of the 2020-21 Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California. 

She was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Issues in Organ Donor Intervention Research and appointed an observer by the United States National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (for the revision of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act).  She chaired several sections of the Association of American Law Schools, including its Health Law Section and its Bio Law Section.  She was the first woman to be elected Secretary General of the International Academy of Law & Mental Health.

Research and Scholarship Distinction:

Professor Goodwin directed the first ABA accredited health law program in the nation and established the first law center focused on race and bioethics. Her health law scholarship is hailed as “exceptional” in the New England Journal of Medicine. She ranks among the most cited professors in the field.  Trained in sociology and anthropology, Professor Goodwin has conducted field research in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, focusing on human trafficking (marriage, sex, organs, and other biologics).  Her books include Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood (2020); Biotechnology, Bioethics, and The Law (2015); Baby Markets: Money and the Politics of Creating Families (2010); and Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts (2006).

Public Commentary:

Professor Goodwin is a sought after public commentator and has been featured in print, radio, and television news, including Forbes, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Vox, Mother Jones; ABC News; NBC News; NPR, HBO’s Vice News, and Ms. Magazine among others. She is host of the On the Issues with Michele Goodwin podcast at Ms. Magazine. A prolific author, Goodwin’s publications include six books and over 100 articles, essays, book chapters, and commentaries.