Edmund D. Pellegrino

Edmund Daniel Pellegrino (June 22, 1920 – June 13, 2013) was an American bioethicist and academic who served as the 11th president of The Catholic University of America (CUA) from 1978 to 1982. For 35 years, Pellegrino was a distinguished professor of medicine and medical ethics and the Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. Pellegrino was an expert both in clinical bioethics, and in the field of medicine and the humanities, specifically, the teaching of humanities in medical school, which he helped pioneer). He was the second layman to hold the position of President of Catholic University. In 1998, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics.

Dr. Pellegrino had appeared on of "Da Ali G Show" on HBO, when Ali G conducts a panel on medical ethics with several renowned experts, including Dr. Pellegrino, pressing his guests on issues of cloning (why not clone Carmen Electra?), euthanasia (vs. "youth in Asia") and plastic surgery. Dr. Pellegrino's comment, "It's a matter of taste," has become one of the most paraphrased lines from the episode.