Edward J. Furton, MA, PhD

Director of Publications and Ethicist
215-871-2008 | efurton@ncbcenter.org

Dr. Furton directs a staff of three who produce the NCBC’s many books and serial publications. He is founding editor of the award-winning journal The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly and the longest-serving editor of Ethics & Medics, a monthly bulletin on moral issues in the health and life sciences. He and his staff have recently completed the third edition of the best-selling Catholic Health Care Ethics: A Manual for Practitioners. He has edited books by a variety of distinguished authors, including Daniel Cronin, John Leies, Marilyn Coors, Matthew Hanley, and Arland Nichols. 

He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and has taught at St. Charles Borromeo Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, LaSalle University in Philadelphia, and Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri. A member of The National Catholic Bioethics Center since 1997, he subscribes to the natural law theory of ethics and has written and spoken on many topics in bioethics, including stem cell research, reproductive technologies, vaccine use, brain death, organ donation, and physician-assisted suicide. He is interested in the role of religion in American public life. Dr. Furton lives in Philadelphia with his wife and has five children.