LeRoy Walters

LeRoy Walters (born 1940) is an American philosopher and Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics at Georgetown University. He is known for his works on bioethics, Christian ethics, Holocaust studies and the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Early life and education Walters was born in Sterling, Illinois in 1940. He was raised in a Mennonite community in Pennsylvania and earned a bachelor's degree from Messiah College in 1962. He completed his PhD in Religious Studies at Yale University Graduate School in 1971.

Academic career In 1971, Walters was senior research scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. He curated the Bibliography of Bioethics and Encyclopedia of Bioethics, and founded the Bioethics Research Library. Walters played an important role in the development of bioethics as new forms of gene therapy and biotechnologies were developed in the 1970s. His research and role as an advisor to policy makers and academic bodies helped to position the Kennedy Institute as one of the primary bioethics organizations of the time. He was chair of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 until 1996, and served on the committee for three terms. Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, co-editor (with Tom L. Beauchamp, Jeffrey P. Kahn, and Anna C. Mastroianni, 7th ed., Wadsworth, 2008.