James J. McCartney, OSA, Ph.D. Biographical Sketch, August 2019
The Rev. Dr. James J. McCartney, OSA, is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Philosophy Department of Villanova University. He was Director of Philosophy Doctoral Studies from 2009 until 2013 and Chair of the Department from 1996 until 2001. From 2005 until 2008 he was Special Assistant to the Provincial for Development, Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova. He taught courses in bioethics, clinical ethics, bioethics and the law, the philosophy of medicine, philosophy for theology, and the philosophy of law. He is a priest and a member of the Order of St. Augustine, aworldwide religious community in the Roman Catholic tradition. On weekends he celebrates Mass and hears Confessions at St. John Vianney Parish in Gladwyne, PA and St. George Parish in Glenolden, PA.
He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University in 1981 and also has graduate degrees in cell and molecular biology (M.S., The Catholic University of America) and theology (M.A., Augustinian College). He has co-edited four books: Replacement Parts: The Ethics of Procuring and Replacing Organs in Humans, Georgetown University Press, 2015; The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life, Prometheus Press, 2006; Health, Disease and Illness: Concepts of Medicine, Georgetown University Press, 2004, and Concepts of Health and Disease, Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Addison-Wesley, 1981. He has authored numerous articles and a book, Unborn Persons: Pope John Paul II and the Abortion Debate, Peter Lang, 1987. Two important articles of his deal with stem cell research: “Recent Ethical Controversies About Stem Cell Research” in Stem Cell Research, pp. 87-119, edited by James M. Humber and Robert F. Almeder, Humana Press, 2004, and “Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Respect for Human Life: Philosophical and Legal Reflections,” Albany Law Review 65:3 (2002):597-624. He also contributed a chapter in The Penn Center Guide to Bioethics entitled “Hospital Ethics Committees and Ethics Consultants.”
Before coming to Villanova University, he lived in Miami, Florida. From 1980 until 1985 he was Academic Vice President at St. Thomas University. From 1985 until 1988 he was the Director of the Bioethics Institute at St. Francis Hospital in Miami Beach and served on several ethics committees of hospitals and nursing homes in South Florida. He was also an Associate Professor of Humanities at St. Thomas University as well as Professor of Jurisprudence at its School of Law. He was also Professor of Moral Theology at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach from 1982 until 1988. Before he came to Miami, he was a faculty member at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and a research associate at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.
He was selected as the participant from the United States at an international workshop on “Human Life — Human Personhood” held in Mumbai, India, during December,1988. In July 1992 he was invited to give a paper on genetics and ethics at an international genetics conference in Brno, The Czech Republic, the city where another Augustinian, Gregor Mendel, discovered the laws of heredity and variation. In 1995 he presented several workshops to various hospital ethics committees in Puerto Rico. He lectures frequently on bioethical subjects both locally and nationally. He was honored by Esquire Magazine in December 1987 for his support and advocacy for persons infected and affected by AIDS and HIV in Miami-Dade County.