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This section contains information about all of the projects and researchers that have been funded through the Investigator Awards program since the first grants were made in 1993. The indexes in this section can be used to identify investigators by name, area of expertise, or year of award. Throughout the site, you will find that each investigator’s name links to details including contact and project information.
»Show details for:
Joseph J. Fins, M.D.
Joseph J. Fins, M.D.
The E. William Davis, Jr., M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics
Chief, Division of Medical Ethics
Department of Medicine & Public Health
Weill Medical College
Cornell University
Email: jjfins@med.cornell.edu
Discipline: Ethics; Medicine
Expertise: Medical Ethics

Neuroethics

Palliative Care

Investigator Award:
Minds Apart: Severe Brain Injury and Health Policy
Award Year: 2006

The two very public court cases of Karen Ann Quinlan and Terri Schiavo have colored much of the debate about the persistent vegetative state and futile medical treatment. But another recent case, that of Terry Wallis, a man with severe brain damage who began to speak after spending 19 years in a nursing home in a minimally conscious state, provides a different example - one of possible improvement, although not full recovery. Joseph J. Fins, M.D. tackles a host of thorny problems and policy issues raised by severe brain injury, a leading cause of disability among young people. These include obstacles to accurate diagnosis, coverage for life-long medical and rehabilitation services, research in subjects who lack decision-making capacity, impact of caregiving on families, and a general lack of scientific interest among medical professionals. Fins' project, Minds Apart: Severe Brain Injury and Health Policy, aims to provide information about the effects of brain injury, promote a public dialogue about the needs of these patients and their families, and explore options for improving care and broadening clinical research.

Background:

Dr. Joseph J. Fins is Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College where he serves as The E. William Davis, Jr., M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry. Dr. Fins is also Director of Medical Ethics at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Rockefeller University and a Senior Attending Physician at The Rockefeller University Hospital.

Dr. Fins has also received a Soros Open Society Institute Project on Death in America Faculty Scholars Award, a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Visiting Fellowship and support from the Dana and Buster Foundations. He was appointed by President Clinton to The White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and currently serves on The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law by gubernatorial appointment. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Fins graduated from Wesleyan University (B.A. with Honors, The College of Letters, 1982) and Cornell University Medical College (M.D., 1986). He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and is a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

An Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Fins chairs the hospital’s ethics committee and teaches medicine and bioethics. The author of over 200 publications in medical ethics and health policy, his most recent book is A Palliative Ethic of Care: Clinical Wisdom at Life’s End (Jones and Bartlett, 2006). His current scholarly interests include ethical and policy issues in brain injury and disorders of consciousness, palliative care, research ethics in neurology and psychiatry, medical education and methods of ethics case consultation. He is a co-author of the 2007 Nature paper describing the first use of deep brain stimulation in the minimally conscious state.

Dr. Fins is a Governor of the American College of Physicians and a member of the Editorial Boards of Neuroethics, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, The Oncologist and BioMed Central Medical Ethics. He is a Trustee of the American College of Physicians Foundation and has served on the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University, the Fund for Modern Courts and the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. Dr. Fins has been a member of New York’s Attorney General’s Commission on Quality Care at the End of Life and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, The New York Academy of Medicine and The Hastings Center.

Book Chapters:
Fins, J., Neuroethics and the Lure of Technology. In Handbook of Neuroethics, ed. Illes, J. New York: Oxford University Press, 895-908, 2011.
Fins, J.J, Deep Brain Stimulation: Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice and Neurosurgical Research. In Neuromodulation, eds. Krames, E., Peckham, P.H., Rezai, A. London: Elsevier, 2009.
Fins, J.J., Being Conscious of Their Burden: Severe Brain Injury and the Two Cultures Challenge. In Disorders of Consciousness (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol.1157), eds. Schiff, N.D., Laureys, S. Wiley-Blackwell, 131-47, 2009.
Fins, J.J, Brain Injury: The Vegetative Mind and Minimally Conscious States. In From Assisted Reproduction to Synthetic Biology: The Hastings Center Briefing Book for Campaigns, Journalists and Policymakers, ed. Crowley, M. Garrison, NY: The Hastings Center, 2008.
Fins, J.J., Neuroethics and Disorders of Consciousness: A Pragmatic Approach to Neuropalliative Care. In The Neurology of Consciousness, Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropathology, eds. Laureys, S., Tononi, G. Academic Press-Elsevier, 234-44, 2008.
Selected Journal Articles:
Fins, J.J. Severe Brain Injury and Organ Solicitation: A Call for Temperance, Virtual Mentor, Mar 2012, 14, 3, 221-6.
Bardin, J.C., Fins, J.J., Katz, D.I., Hersh, J., Heier, L.A., Tabelow, K. Dissociations between Behavioural and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging-based Evaluations of Cognitive Function after Brain Injury, Brain, 2011, 134, 3, 769-782.
Fins, J, Suppes, A. Brain Injury and the Culture of Neglect: Musings on an Uncertain Future: The Body and the State, Social Research: An International Quarterly, 2011, 78, 3, 731-746.
Fins, J. "Wait, Wait---Don't Tell Me" .. Tuning in the Injured Brain, Archives of Neurology, 2011, 69, 2, 158-160.
Fins, J., Mayberg, H., Nuttin, B., Kubu, C., Galert, T., Sturm, V., Stoppenbrink, K., Merkel, R., Schlaepfer, T. Misuse of the FDA's Humanitarian Device Exemption in Deep Brain Stimulation for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Health Affairs, Feb 2011, 30, 2, 302-11.
Fins, J.J. Deep Brain Stimulation, Free Markets and the Scientific Commons: Is it Time to Revisit the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980?, Neuromodulation, 2010, 13, 153-159.
Fins, J.J., Schiff, N.D. In the Blink of the Mind's Eye, Hastings Center Report, 2010, 40, 3, 2.
Schlaepher, T.E., Fins, J.J. Deep Brain Stimulation and the Neuroethics of Responsible Publishing: When One is Not Enough, JAMA, 2010, 303, 8, 775-6.
Fins, J.J. Being Conscious of Their Burden: Severe Brain Injury and the Two Cultures Challenge. Proceedings from "Disorders of Consciousness." 87th Annual Conference of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2009, 1157, 131-47.
Fins, J.J. Being Conscious of their Burden: Severe Brain Injury and the Two Cultures Challenge, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2009, 1157, 131-147.
Fins, J.J. Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath, JAMA, 2009, 301, 22, 2393-4.
Fins, J.J. Lessons from the Injured Brain: A Bioethicist in the Vineyards of Neuroscience, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 2009, 18, 1, 7-13.
Schiff, N.D., Giacino, J.T., Fins, J.J. Deep Brain Stimulation, Neuroethics and the Minimally Conscious State: Moving beyond Proof of Principle, Archives of Neurology, 2009, 66, 6, 697-702.
Fins, J.J. A Leg to Stand On: Sir William Osler and Wilder Penfield's "Neuroethics", American J of Bioethics, 2008, 8, 1, 37-46.
Fins, J.J. Neuroethics and Neuroimaging: Moving toward Transparency, American J of Bioethics, 2008, 8, 9, 46-52.
Fins, J.J. Review: The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up: A True Story, JAMA, 2008, 299, 8, 959-10.
Fins, J.J., Illes, J. Lights, Camera, Inaction? Neuroimaging and Disorders of Consciousness, American J of Bioethics, 2008, 8, 9, 1-3.
Laureys, S., Fins, J.J. Are We Equal in Death? Avoiding Diagnostic Error in Brain Death, Neurology, 2008, 70, 4, e14-5.
Fins, J.J., Master, M.G., Gerber, L.M., Giacino, J.T. The Minimally Conscious State: A Diagnosis in Search of an Epidemiology, Archives of Neurology, 2007, 64, 10, 1400-5.
Fins, J.J., Schiff, N.D., Foley, K.M. Late Recovery from the Minimally Conscious State: Ethical and Policy Implications, Neurology, 2007, 68, 4, 304-7.
Research In Profile:
Issue 20, June 2007
Researchers Examine Health Policy Changes in America
Investigator Awards In Health Policy Research		»Open Summary
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