Stephen G. Post

Stephen G. Post is Professor and Associate Director for Educational Programs, Department of Bioethics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, and Senior Research Scholar at the Becket Institute of St Hugh's College, Oxford and President of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love,.

He received his Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of Chicago in philosophical and religious ethics, where he was an elected university fellow, a fellow in the Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion, and a co-preceptor in the Pritzker School of Medicine. His Ph.D. dissertation on the topic of self-denial in relation to other-regarding love was completed in 1983 under the supervision of James M. Gustafson and Robin W. Lovin.

After finishing at Chicago, Post taught undergraduates and was involved in projects at the nearby Hastings Center, a bioethics institute. In 1988 he was appointed assistant professor in the newly created Center for Biomedical Ethics at the Case-Western Reserve School of Medicine   He became Associate Director for Educational Programs and achieved the rank of full professor (1998). The Center has since become the first full Department of Bioethics in the U.S., and is ranked third in the nation.

In the field of bioethics, Post is both a generalist and a specialist with a focus on neurology, dementia, and aging. He is Editor-in-Chief of the definitive reference work in the field, the third edition of the five-volume Encyclopedia of Bioethics (Macmillan Reference, 2003). Hie has over 110 peer-reviewed publications in major journals, such as Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine, the Hastings Center Report,  and the American Journal of Psychiatry. An early book publication, entitled Inquiries in Bioethics (Georgetown University Press, 1993) provides an example of his initial work in the field. By the early 1990s, however, Post developed a specialty in ethical issues surrounding developmental cognitive disabilities and dementia in the context of an aging society.

He is now an elected member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel of Alzheimer's Disease International, serves on the National Ethics Advisory Board for the Alzheimer's Association, and was recognized for “distinguished service” by the Association’s National Board for educational efforts in bringing ethical issues to Association Chapters and families throughout the United States (1998). He was presented with the “special recognition” award by the American Geriatrics Society for service on its Ethics Committee (2001). His book entitled The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease: Ethical Issues from Diagnosis to Dying (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, 2nd edition), is widely influential and well reviewed. He has also edited a variety of books pertaining to dementia on topics such as genetic testing and anti-aging technologies. He is an Editor for the four-volume Encyclopedia of Aging (Macmillan Reference, 2002). Post has received RO1 funding from the NIH Human Genome Research Institute and from the National Institute on Aging.

Dr. Post’s scholarship has not been focused narrowly on bioethics. He has a long-standing interest in the related topic of the family. He is a consultant for family caregivers throughout the United States and Canada, and has led workshops and educational forums for more than 80 Chapters of the Alzheimer’s Association across the United States since 1995. Post worked with Professor Don S. Browning of the University of Chicago on The Religion, Culture, and Family Project, funded by the Lilly Endowment, and published a monograph in the project series More Lasting Unions (Wm. B. Eerdmans Press, 2000). He also co-edited a volume with the project. Many of his articles and book chapters focus on the moral basis and limits of family caregiving for persons with cognitive disabilities.

A third area of scholarship focuses on love, altruism, and compassion in the context of scientific research (neurology, evolutionary psychology, healthcare, pedagogy, and human development), philosophy, religion, ethics, and the professions. He has written several books on this, most recently co-editing a book entitled Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Dialogue (Oxford University Press, 2002). Post is President of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, a 501 (c)(3) established in July 2001 for empirical research on topics such as unselfish love, compassion, care, kindness, and altruism, as well as to encourage scientifically informed discussion from the humanities. His articles on love have appeared over two decades in venues such as the Journal of Religious Ethics, the Journal of Religion, and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Post’s most recent book, entitled Human Nature and Freedom of Public Religious Expression (University of Notre Dame Press, 2003), examines scientific images of human nature and altruism in the context of freedom of religious expression.

Post has integrated these three related foci through his work with individuals and families affected by Alzheimer disease. In this work he provides volunteer respite care and consultation. He has been able to develop his work on the ethics of the family and the family caregiver in a manner that  has been of real use to family caregivers across the Alzheimer’s Associations in both the U.S. and Canada.

He published in 2007 a popular book, Why Good Things Happen to Good People

He has been an active lay leader in the Episcopal Church for 20 years, and is a husband and the father of two children.

Popular publications

 * Why Good Things Happen to Good People: The Exciting New Research That Proves the Link Between Doing Good and Living a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by Stephen Post, Ph.D. and Jill Neimark, 2007, 294 pages, Broadway Books, ISBN 978-0-7679-2017-9