Short Biographies

Brief Biography

Paul Menzel taught philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University from 1971 to 2012, having been educated at Wooster, Yale, and Vanderbilt. Teaching widely in philosophy and cross-disciplinary curricula, he has also published specialized scholarly work in health care ethics, including two books on moral questions about health care economics, and a co-edited and partially authored volume on the tension between treatment and prevention in health policy. He has recently written extensively about end-of-life options. His courses in the last decade of his teaching included Biomedical Ethics, Business Ethics, Human Rights, the Nature of Human Well-Being, Human Identity & Bioethics, and Health & Social Justice. He served the university in various administrative positions, including Provost 1994-2002 and then director of the Wild Hope Project to nurture student and faculty exploration of vocation. Since retiring in 2012, he has continued his scholarly writing, been a Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2015), and will reside at the Monash Bioethics Centre (Melbourne) for much of fall 2017.

Before her death in 2007 Paul was married to Susan Blank, artist and junior high school art teacher. His family from life with Susan includes four stepchildren and six grandchildren. In June, 2013, he and Bonnie Steinbock of Albany, NY, also a philosopher and bioethicist, married. His personal interests include politics, cooking, art and architecture, travel, cycling and hiking, and dancing. He and Bonnie have lived in Oakland, CA, since 2015.

Brief Professional Sketch

Paul T. Menzel taught philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University from 1971 until 2012, after having been educated at Wooster, Yale, and Vanderbilt. Teaching widely in philosophy and cross-disciplinary curricula, he has also published specialized scholarly work in health care ethics, including two books on moral questions in health care economics, numerous articles on health system structure and health care reform, a co-edited book (2012) on the tension between treatment and prevention in health policy, and numerous recent articles on end-of-life options, particularly for persons with progressive dementia. His courses in the last decade include Biomedical Ethics, Human Identity and Bioethics, Health and Social Justice, Business Ethics, Human Rights, and The Nature of Human Well-Being. He served the university in various administrative positions, including Provost. He retired to Professor Emeritus in summer 2012, was Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in fall of 2015, and will be Visiting Scholar at Monash Bioethics Centre (Melbourne) in fall 2017.