Van Rensselaer Potter

Van Rensselaer Potter II (12 November, 1911 – September 6, 2001) was an American biochemist, oncologist, and bioethicist. Born in northeast South Dakota, Potter was professor of oncology at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for more than five decades.^[1]

Van Rensselaer Potter
Born	(1911-08-27)August 27, 1911 South Dakota, U.S.
Died	September 6, 2001(2001-09-06) (aged 90) Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Alma mater	South Dakota State University (B.S.) University of Wisconsin (Ph.D.)
Scientific career
Fields	Biochemistry

Potter is known for coining the widely used term bioethics in 1970, however, German theologian Fritz Jahr had previously coined the term in the 1920s.^[2] Peter Whitehouse describes Potter's formulation of bioethics as a "wise integration of biology and values", which arose from his work as a cancer researcher and from the influence of faculty member Aldo Leopold at the University of Wisconsin.^[3]

Bioethics is linked to environmental ethics and is separate from biomedical ethics.^[4] Because of this confusion (and appropriation of the term in medicine), Potter chose to use the term global bioethics in 1988.^[5] He was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, The president of the American Society of Cell Biology in 1965, and the president of the American Association for Cancer Research in 1974.^[6]

Awards

• Bristol-Myers Squibb Awards (1981)
• Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry (1947)
• List of Ten Outstanding Young Americans (1945)

Publications

Popular

• Bioethics: Bridge to the Future (Prentice-Hall, 1971)
• Global Bioethics: Building on the Leopold Legacy (Michigan State Univ Pr 1988) ISBN 0-87013-264-4

See also

• Geotherapy

References

1. Trosko, J. E., & Pitot, H. C. (2003). In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Van Rensselaer Potter II (1911–2001). Cancer Research, 63, 1724. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
2. Muzur, A. & I. Rinčić. (2015). Two kinds of globality: a comparison of Fritz Jahr and Van Rensselaer Potter's bioethics. Global Bioethics, 26:1, 23-27. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
3. Whitehouse, P. (2001). In Memoriam: Van Rensselaer Potter: The Original Bioethicist. The Hastings Center Report, 31(6), 12-12. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
4. Pitot, H. C., Drinkwater, N. R., & Kasper, C. B. (2002, April 1). Memorial Resolution of the Faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the Death of Professor Emeritus Van Rensselaer Potter II. McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research. University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
5. Cascais, A.F. (1997). Bioethics: History, Scope, Object. Global Bioethics. 10:1-4, 9-24. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
6. Whitehouse, Peter J. (2001). "The Rebirth of Bioethics: A Tribute to Van Rensselaer Potter". Global Bioethics. 14 (4): 38. doi:10.1080/11287462.2001.10800813. ISSN 1128-7462. S2CID 220273486.

Further reading

• Lower, G. (2001). Van Rensselaer Potter—Ad memoriam. Global Bioethics, 14(4), 31–32. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
• Whitehouse, P. J. (2002). Van Rensselaer Potter: An Intellectual Memoir. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 11(4), 331–334. Retrieved May 15, 2021.