Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal

It is the great honor of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal to present this special issue celebrating the career and bioethical contributions of LeRoy Walters. Professor Walters is the former Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, which he has been affiliated with since its inception in 1971 until his recent retirement from his position as Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Professor of Christian Ethics. Trained as a philosopher and a theologist, LeRoy Walters was also a lifelong political activist, fighting for social justice and protections for the vulnerable. He was also a visionary who played a substantial role in creating and building the field of bioethics, and in bridging the divide between academia and the practical world of politics and policy. His interests ranged across genomics and eugenics, Holocaust studies, the physician-patient relationship, and the ethics of clinical research, among many other topics. Some of the wide diversity of his intellectual interests and influence is reflected in this issue. He played a key role in turning the Kennedy Institute of Ethics into the most historically important and influential bioethics center in the world. This journal would not exist if it were not for him. As current editor of the journal, and as a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, I hereby thank LeRoy Walters for all he did, and offer him my deep gratitude and appreciation. [End Page ix]