The author of over 500 papers, chapters, essays, and books, his most recent volume is Rights Come to Mind: Brain Injury, Ethics and The Struggle for Consciousness (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Dr. Fins is also the author of A Palliative Ethic of Care: Clinical Wisdom at Life’s End (Jones and Bartlett, 2006). Dr. Fins is a co-author of the 2007 Nature paper describing the first use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the minimally conscious state and the 2023 Nature Medicine paper on DBS in moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. He is currently principal investigator on an NIH BRAIN Initiative study entitled, "Cognitive Restoration: Neuroethics and Disability Rights." In a research collaboration with Harvard Medical School and Weill Cornell Medical College, he is co-principal investigator on "Post-trial Access, Clinical Care, Psychosocial Support, and Scientific Progress in Experimental Deep Brain Stimulation Research," also funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative.

            A developer of clinical pragmatism as a method of moral problem solving for medicine, Professor Fins’ current scholarly interests include: ethical and policy issues in brain injury and disorders of consciousness; civil and disability rights for individuals with severe brain injury; palliative care; research ethics in neurology and psychiatry; medical education;  methods of ethics case consultation; the history of medicine; medical humanities; bioethics in the Spanish-speaking world; and more broadly fostering a productive dialogue between the sciences and the humanities.

           Professor Fins is currently working on a biography of the physician-humanist, Dr. Lewis Thomas.

Joseph J. Fins, MD, D Hum Litt (hc), MACP, FRCP

            Dr. Joseph J. Fins, '82, Hon '22, is The E. William Davis, Jr. M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics and Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College where he is a Tenured Professor of Medicine, Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry, Professor of Medical Ethics in Neurology, Professor of Medical Ethics in Rehabilitation Medicine, and Professor of Health Care Policy and Research. He is the founding Chair of the Ethics Committee of New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center where he is an Attending Physician and Director of Medical Ethics. A member of the Adjunct Faculty of Rockefeller University and a Senior Attending Physician at The Rockefeller University Hospital, he co-directs the Consortium for the Advanced Study of Brain Injury (CASBI) at Weill Cornell Medicine and Rockefeller. In 2014, he served as the Dwight H. Terry Visiting Scholar in Bioethics and Visiting Professor in the History of Medicine at Yale. In 2015, he was appointed the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Medicine, Bioethics and the Law at Yale Law School, where he continues to direct CASBI@YLS. In addition to his appointments at Weill Cornell Medicine, he is currently a Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School and chair of the Hastings Center Board of Trustees. In the Fall of 2023, Dr. Fins is on sabbatical as a Visiting Professor and an Old Dominion Visiting Fellow in the Council of Humanities and Department of Classics at Princeton. In the Spring of 2024, he will be a Koeppel Visiting Professor of Letters at Wesleyan. He is currently working on a biography of the physician-humanist, Dr. Lewis Thomas.

           Profesor Fins is an elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) of the National Academies of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and by Royal Appointment an Academico de Honor (Honored Academic) of the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina de España (the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain). In 2022, he was elected to the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Fins was graduated from Wesleyan University (B.A. with Honors, The College of Letters, 1982) and Cornell University Medical College (M.D., 1986). He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and served as Associate for Medicine at The Hastings Center. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

           Professor Fins is the chair of the Hastings Center Board of Trustees. He is the  immediate past President of the International Neuroethics Society, and a Past President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. He is the lone North American to serve on the Comisión Académica of the Fundación Ortega-Marañón, Madrid, Spain. He is a Trustee Emeritus of Wesleyan University, which has recognized him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.