George W. Gay Lecture in Medical Ethics

About the Annual Lecture

The George W. Gay Lecture is the oldest endowed lectureship at Harvard Medical School, and quite possibly the oldest medical ethics lectureship in the United States. The lectureship was established in 1917 by a $1,000 gift from Dr. George Washington Gay, an 1868 graduate of HMS. Gay gave Harvard the fund to provide an annual income to support lectures “to the advanced, or graduating classes in the Medical School upon Medical Ethics, and upon wise and proper methods of conducting the business of physicians, as relates to fees, collections, investments, etc.” The Gay Lectureship perpetuates his deep concern for the welfare of his patients and his appreciation of the constantly arising social and economic forces that impinge on medical care.

Since its inception, many of the nation's most influential physicians, scientists, researchers, and social observers have given the annual lecture. Past lecturers include Elie Wiesel, Erich Fromm, Felix Frankfurter, Margaret Mead, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Elizabeth Kübler Ross, E.O. Wilson, Joshua Lederberg, Marian Wright Edelman, Paul Krugman, Paul Farmer, and Donald Burwick.

Read details, view photos, and watch videos of past lectures:

Accommodation Requests

Harvard Medical School welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please email us in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for Sign Language interpreters and/or Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) providers should be made at least two (2) weeks in advance, if possible. Please note that the university will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability. For campus maps and directions, including an ADA pedestrian access map, please visit this Contact HMS page.

  • Past George W. Gay Lecturers

    1922 to Present
    2022 Rueben C. Warren, DDS, MPH, DrPH, MDiv, Director of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, and Professor of Bioethics at Tuskegee University
    2021 Patricia A. King, JD, Professor Emerita of Georgetown Law
    2020 Eric Topol, MD, Executive Vice President, Scripps Research Director & Founder, Scripps Research Translational Institute
    2019 Danielle Allen, PhD, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
    2018 Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
    2017 Michael Sandel, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
    2016 Martha Minow, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
    2015 Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania
    2014 Cass R. Sunstein, JD, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard Law School
    2013 Dan W. Brock, PhD, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Medical Ethics, HMS
    2012 Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
    2010 Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times op-ed columnist, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
    2009 Paul R. Krugman, PhD, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Princeton University
    2008 Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD, President of the Institute of Medicine
    2006 Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Co-Founder, Partners in Health
    2005 Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus, New England Journal of Medicine
    2004 Howard Gardner, PhD, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
    2002 Rashi Fein, PhD, Professor of The Economics of Medicine, Emeritus, HMS
    2001 Dame Cicely Saunders, St. Christopher’s Hospice, London
    1999 Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President, The Children’s Defense Fund
    1998 Elie Wiesel, Mellon Professor of The Humanities, Boston University
    1998 Daniel D. Federman, M.D., Dean for Medical Education, Harvard Medical School
    1997 Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., Founder, The Hastings Center
    1996 Sissela Bok, Ph.D., Fellow, Harvard Center for Population and Development
    1995 Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Ph.D. Chair, Afro-American Studies Dept., Harvard Univ.
    1994 Robert Lawrence, M.D., Director, Health Sciences, Rockefeller Foundation
    1993 Bernadine Healy, M.D., Director, National Institutes of Health
    1992 Larry R. Churchill, Chair, Social Medicine, Univ. N. Carolina School of Med.
    1991 Arnold S. Relman, M.D., Prof. of Medicine, HMS; Editor, NEJM
    1988 Albert Jonsen, Ph.D., Chair, Medical History and Ethics, Univ. of Washington
    1987 Dennis Thompson, Ph.D., Dir. Pgm. in Ethics and Professions, Harvard Univ.
    1986 Baroness Mary Warnock, Mistress, Girton College, Cambridge, England
    1985 Dr. Julian Tudor Hart, Glyncorrwg Health Center, West Galmorgan, Wales
    1984 Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D., Prof. Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton Univ.
    1983 Joshua Lederberg, Ph.D., President, The Rockefeller University
    1982 The Rev. Robert F. Drinan, SJ, U.S. Congress; Georgetown Univ. Law Ctr.
    1981 Arnold S. Relman, M.D., Prof. of Medicine, HMS; Editor, NEJM
    1980 Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Professor of Science, Harvard University
    1979 Dr. Carleton B. Chapman, President, The Commonwealth Fund
    1978 Dr. Kenneth J. Ryan, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Univ.
    1977 Dr. Franz J. Ingelfinger, Editor, New England Journal of Medicine
    1976 Dr. Robert J. Lifton, Foundations Fund of Research, Yale University
    1973 Dr. Elizabeth Kübler Ross, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Univ. of Chicago
    1970 Dr. I Bernard Cohen, Professor of The History of Science, Harvard University
    1965 Dr. Paul Freund, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University
    1963 Dr. Herman Ludwig Blumgart, Prof. of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
    1962 Erik Erikson, Prof. of Human Development, Lecturer Psych., Harvard Univ.
    1961 Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche, Under Secretary for Special Political Affairs, U.N.
    1960 Dr. Margaret Mead, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
    1959 Dr. James Howard Means, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
    1958 The Honorable Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
    1957 Dr. Erich Fromm, Professor of Psychoanalysis, National University of Mexico
    1956 The Rev. Douglas Horton, Professor of Theology, Harvard University
    1955 The Rev. George A. Buttrick, Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University
    1954 Dr. Hugh J. Morgan, Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University
    1945 Ben Amers Williams, Author
    1941 Dr. Charles R. Austrian, Assoc. Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
    Dr. David Cheever, Associate Professor of Surgery, Emeritus, Harvard University
    Dr. T. Grier Miller, Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
    1940 Phillips Ketchum, Partner, Herrick, Smith, Donald, Farley & Ketchum
    1939 Dr. Eliot Wadsworth, President, Boston Chamber of Commerce
    Dr. Robert L. DeNormandie, Comm. on Ethics & Discipline, Mass. Med. Soc.
    Dr. Donald Guthrie, Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
    1938 Henry L. Shattuck, Treasurer, Harvard University
    Dr. Reginald Fitz, Lecturer on The History of Medicine, Harvard University
    Dr. Elton Mayo, Professor of Industrial Research, Harvard University
    1937 Dr. Lawrence K. Lunt, Psychiatrist (Boston, Massachusetts)
    Dr. O. H. Perry Pepper, Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
    1935 Dr. James B. Herrick, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Rush Medical College
    1934 Dr. Arthur H. Ruggles, Superintendent, Butler Hospital, Providence, RI
    Dr. John Homans, Clinical Professor of Surgery, Harvard University
    Dr. Joseph H. Pratt, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Tufts College
    1933 Dr. Robert B. Osgood, Professor Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard University
    Dr. Elliott P. Joslin, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard University
    1932 Dr. Roger I. Lee, Professor of Hygiene, Harvard University
    1931 Dr. John M. Birnie, Secretary, New England Medical Society
    1930 Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, past President, Massachusetts Medical Society
    1927 Dr. Francis Weld Peabody, Professor of Medicine, Harvard University
    1926 Dr. George G. Sears, Clinical Prof. of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
    1924 Dr. Walter P. Bowers, Managing Editor, Boston Medical and Surgical Journal
    1923 Dr. George W. Gay
    1922 Dr. John Bapst Blake, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard University