Joseph Fletcher

Joseph Francis Fletcher (April 10, 1905 – October 28, 1991) was an American professor who founded the theory of situational ethics in the 1960s. Fletcher was a pioneer in the field of bioethics, and a leading academic proponent of the potential benefits of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, eugenics, and cloning. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest, later identifying himself as an atheist.

Early life and education Joseph F. Fletcher was born in Newark, New Jersey on April 10, 1905. He graduated from West Virginia University and later attended the Berkeley Divinity School and Yale University.

Fletcher grew to believe strongly in the right to die with dignity, and he served as president of the Euthanasia Society of America (later renamed the Society for the Right to Die) from 1974 to 1976. He was also a member of the American Eugenics Society and the Association for Voluntary Sterilization.

Notable works (1954) Morals and Medicine N.J.: Princeton University Press. (1966) Situation Ethics: The New Morality, Philadelphia: Westminster Press. (translated into 5 languages) (1974) The Ethics of Genetic Control: Ending Reproductive Roulette. New York: Doubleday.