George W. Gay Lecture in Medical Ethics

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.

Visit our YouTube playlist for videos of recent lectures. Read details and view photos below:

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

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1922 to Present
2024Effy Vayena, PhD, Professor of Bioethics and Associate Vice President for Digital Transformation and Governance, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
2023Steven E. Hyman, MD, Core Institute Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research
2022Rueben 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
2021Patricia A. King, JD, Professor Emerita of Georgetown Law
2020Eric Topol, MD, Executive Vice President, Scripps Research Director & Founder, Scripps Research Translational Institute
2019Danielle Allen, PhD, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
2018Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
2017Michael Sandel, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
2016Martha Minow, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
2015Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania
2014Cass R. Sunstein, JD, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard Law School
2013Dan W. Brock, PhD, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Medical Ethics, HMS
2012Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
2010Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times op-ed columnist, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner
2009Paul R. Krugman, PhD, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Princeton University
2008Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD, President of the Institute of Medicine
2006Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Co-Founder, Partners in Health
2005Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, Editor-in-Chief, EmeritusNew England Journal of Medicine
2004Howard Gardner, PhD, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
2002Rashi Fein, PhD, Professor of The Economics of Medicine, Emeritus, HMS
2001Dame Cicely Saunders, St. Christopher’s Hospice, London
1999Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President, The Children’s Defense Fund
1998Elie Wiesel, Mellon Professor of The Humanities, Boston University
1998Daniel D. Federman, M.D., Dean for Medical Education, Harvard Medical School
1997Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., Founder, The Hastings Center
1996Sissela Bok, Ph.D., Fellow, Harvard Center for Population and Development
1995Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Ph.D. Chair, Afro-American Studies Dept., Harvard Univ.
1994Robert Lawrence, M.D., Director, Health Sciences, Rockefeller Foundation
1993Bernadine Healy, M.D., Director, National Institutes of Health
1992Larry R. Churchill, Chair, Social Medicine, Univ. N. Carolina School of Med.
1991Arnold S. Relman, M.D., Prof. of Medicine, HMS; Editor, NEJM
1988Albert Jonsen, Ph.D., Chair, Medical History and Ethics, Univ. of Washington
1987Dennis Thompson, Ph.D., Dir. Pgm. in Ethics and Professions, Harvard Univ.
1986Baroness Mary Warnock, Mistress, Girton College, Cambridge, England
1985Dr. Julian Tudor Hart, Glyncorrwg Health Center, West Galmorgan, Wales
1984Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D., Prof. Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton Univ.
1983Joshua Lederberg, Ph.D., President, The Rockefeller University
1982The Rev. Robert F. Drinan, SJ, U.S. Congress; Georgetown Univ. Law Ctr.
1981Arnold S. Relman, M.D., Prof. of Medicine, HMS; Editor, NEJM
1980Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Professor of Science, Harvard University
1979Dr. Carleton B. Chapman, President, The Commonwealth Fund
1978Dr. Kenneth J. Ryan, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Univ.
1977Dr. Franz J. Ingelfinger, Editor, New England Journal of Medicine
1976Dr. Robert J. Lifton, Foundations Fund of Research, Yale University
1973Dr. Elizabeth Kübler Ross, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Univ. of Chicago
1970Dr. I Bernard Cohen, Professor of The History of Science, Harvard University
1965Dr. Paul Freund, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University
1963Dr. Herman Ludwig Blumgart, Prof. of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
1962Erik Erikson, Prof. of Human Development, Lecturer Psych., Harvard Univ.
1961Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche, Under Secretary for Special Political Affairs, U.N.
1960Dr. Margaret Mead, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
1959Dr. James Howard Means, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
1958The Honorable Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
1957Dr. Erich Fromm, Professor of Psychoanalysis, National University of Mexico
1956The Rev. Douglas Horton, Professor of Theology, Harvard University
1955The Rev. George A. Buttrick, Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University
1954Dr. Hugh J. Morgan, Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University
1945Ben Amers Williams, Author
1941Dr. 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
1940Phillips Ketchum, Partner, Herrick, Smith, Donald, Farley & Ketchum
1939Dr. 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
1938Henry 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
1937Dr. Lawrence K. Lunt, Psychiatrist (Boston, Massachusetts)
Dr. O. H. Perry Pepper, Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
1935Dr. James B. Herrick, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Rush Medical College
1934Dr. 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
1933Dr. Robert B. Osgood, Professor Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard University
Dr. Elliott P. Joslin, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard University
1932Dr. Roger I. Lee, Professor of Hygiene, Harvard University
1931Dr. John M. Birnie, Secretary, New England Medical Society
1930Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, past President, Massachusetts Medical Society
1927Dr. Francis Weld Peabody, Professor of Medicine, Harvard University
1926Dr. George G. Sears, Clinical Prof. of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University
1924Dr. Walter P. Bowers, Managing Editor, Boston Medical and Surgical Journal
1923Dr. George W. Gay
1922Dr. John Bapst Blake, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard University