Improving health for patients and communities
The MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics is deeply engaged in all aspects of ethics work. We conduct ethics consultations across the University of Chicago medical campus addressing both patient care and research. Our center is also a hub for education and training fellows, while our research is helping to advance the field.
Our Core Work
Clinical AND research ethics consultation
We provide on-call clinical ethics consultation services to assist patients, families, physicians, nurses, and students at UChicago Medicine. We also provide research ethics consultation facilitated by our team of ethicists upon request.
Training AND education
We offer multiple fellowship opportunities and pathways for physicians, nurses, ethicists, attorneys, philosophers, chaplains, and other scholars who wish to take advantage of our multidisciplinary approach.
Scholarship AND research
MacLean Center clinical research proceeds in tandem with medical advances. Our faculty publish widely on subjects from research ethics and end-of-life care to health disparities, genetics, and transplantation ethics.
Conferences and Lectures
The MacLean Center sponsors an annual lecture series that examines the ethical aspects of one key health-related issue each year, in addition to a yearly conference.
Latest seminar video
What’s New
37th Annual MacLean Conference Announced
The MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics is pleased to announce that the 37th Annual MacLean Center Conference on Clinical Medical Ethics will be held on April 10-11, 2026 at the David Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago.
Now accepting abstracts by November 15th.
MacLean Prize submissions are due on October 31st.