health, Boston Children’s is committed to work that often challenges the limits of what is possible. The Center will be a resource for faculty, staff, patients and families, and a home for advocacy and new thinking across all aspects of pediatric healthcare delivery. The center will enable scholarship and education, training for future leaders in pediatric bioethics and establish Boston Children’s as a leader in pediatric bioethics nationally and worldwide.
Dr. Mercurio is an outstanding choice to lead and build our new Center. His unparalleled expertise and keen ethical lens will be essential to internal and external decision making, supporting Boston Children’s, leading our work related to pediatric bioethics and bringing new vision and leadership to the ethics-focused deliberations and decisions that are a part of the work we do every day.
In his role as ED, Dr. Mercurio will report to Peter C. Laussen, MB.BS, FANZCA, FCICM, EVP, Health Affairs, who will be responsible for administrative oversight. and his academic appointment will be within the department of Psychiatry, reporting to Stacy Drury, MD, PhD, Psychiatrist-in-Chief. To support Dr. Mercurio, we will establish a new Hospital Ethics Steering Committee (which Dr. Mercurio will chair) with Dr. Laussen, and Laura J. Wood, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, EVP, Patient Care Operations, System Chief Nursing Executive, as Executive Sponsors.
Currently the Co-Director of the Program for Biomedical Ethics at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Mercurio was the Founding Director of that program, as well as the Yale Pediatric Ethics Program at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. He also served as Chief of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine for seven years at Yale School of Medicine.
After completing his undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University, an MD from Columbia University, and a Pediatrics Residency and Neonatology Fellowship at Yale, he served as an attending neonatologist at Yale and Founding Director of the Newborn ICU at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, CT.
A Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatology) at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Mercurio has a distinguished history of teaching neonatology and medical ethics. A member of the medical faculty for the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) since 2010, he is a former Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Bioethics, and a member of the American Pediatric Society who has been invited to speak on medical ethics in over a dozen countries and most US states.
We are grateful for the important work the Boston Children’s Office of Ethics team has contributed over many years, including leadership provided by Director Kerri O. Kennedy DBE, RN, HEC-C, and through our Ethics Advisory Committee (EAC) and its co-chairs, Kerri Kennedy and Faye Holder-Niles MD, MPH. Dr. Mercurio will work closely with the Office of Ethics and EAC to further shape the development of the Center for Pediatric Bioethics.
We also offer our deepest thanks to Robert (Bob) Truog, MD, MA, for leading the search committee for this role. A distinguished Professor of medical ethics, anaesthesia, and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Boston Children’s, as well as Director Emeritus of the HMS Center for Bioethics, we are grateful that Dr Truog will contribute in a part-time capacity to assist Dr. Mercurio with his transition.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Mercurio when he arrives on October 7 and supporting him as we work together to ensure we are not just building a brighter future for all children, but that we’re doing so in the right way.
Warmest Regards,
Peter C. Laussen, MB.BS, FANZCA, FCICM
EVP, Health Affairs
Laura J. Wood, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
EVP, Patient Care Operations, System Chief Nursing Executive
Stacy S. Drury, MD, PhD
Psychiatrist-in-Chief
Kevin B. Churchwell, MD
Chief Executive Officer
