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Tom Harter

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I'm a 6th-year graduate student currently writing my dissertation on the ethical limits of health care markets in the United States to defend in Fall 2009. I completed my Master of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee in 2005.

Research Interests

I am primarily interested in issues at the intersection of business ethics and medical ethics, especially

  • the ethical limits of health care markets such as those in pharmaceutical drugs, genetics and genetic screenings, and human organs;
  • the ethical obligations regarding the marketing of health care goods and services such as with the direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceutical drugs;
  • questions about what, if any, health care goods and services should not be for sale;
  • what it means, or may mean, to claim there is a right to health care
  • what does it mean to, and how do we, distinguish between luxury and necessary health care goods and services

Recent, Representative Publications

  • “Is a Genetics Screening Program for Job Applicants Ethical? An Analysis of the Conditions Necessary for Required Genetic Screenings in the Hiring Process,” in The Ethics of Genetic Commerce, ed. Robert Kolb (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), 3-24
  • “Overcoming the Organ Shortage: Failing Means and Radical Reform,” Healthcare Ethics Committee Forum, 20, no. 2 (2008), 151-178

Recent, Representative Presentations

  • "In Sickness and In Health: Can the Marriage Between Health Care and the Market Live Ethically Ever After?," American Philosophical Association Pacific Division, 2009
  • “Overcoming the Organ Shortage: The Need for Radical Reform,” American Philosophical Association Central Division, 2007
  • “Dying to be Good: Kant and the Permissibility of Suicide,” American Philosophical Association Central Division, 2006
  • “Is a Genetics Screening Program for Job Applicants Ethical? An Analysis of the Conditions Necessary for Required Genetic Screenings in the Hiring Process,” Japha Business Ethics Symposium (Leeds School of Business: University of Colorado at Boulder), 2005
  • “An Application of Graber’s and Thomasma’s Unitary Theory of Medical Ethics,” Mid-South Philosophy Conference, 2005

Teaching Interests

Business ethics, medical ethics, history of ethics, ethical theory, contemporary moral issues, applied ethics, professional responsibility

Tom Harter

Contact Information

Tom Harter
801 McClung Tower
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-0480

Phone: 865-974-3255
Fax: 865-974-3509
Email: tharter@utk.edu