{{Short description|American professor and founder of situational ethics (1905–1991)}} {{other uses}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = The Reverend | name = Joseph Fletcher | image = | caption = | birth_name = Joseph Francis Fletcher | birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|04|10}} | birth_place = Newark, New Jersey, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1991|10|28|1905|04|10}} | death_place = Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. | citizenship = | known_for = Situational ethics, biomedical ethics | education = | alma_mater = West Virginia University, Berkeley Divinity School, Yale University, London School of Economics | employer = Episcopal Theological School, Harvard University, University of Virginia | occupation = Theologian, Episcopal priest, educator, author | years_active = | partner = | awards = Humanist of the Year | signature = }} '''Joseph Francis Fletcher''' (April 10, 1905 – October 28, 1991)<ref>John R. Shook, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ijpj1tB3Qr0C&pg= ''Dictionary Of Modern American Philosophers''], Vol. 1, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, p. 803</ref> was an American professor who founded the theory of situational ethics in the 1960s. Fletcher was a pioneer in the field of bioethics, and a leading academic proponent of the potential benefits of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, eugenics, and cloning. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest, later identifying himself as an atheist.<ref name=Steinfels>{{cite news |last=Steinfels |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Steinfels |title=Dr. Joseph F. Fletcher, 86, Dies; Pioneer in Field of Medical Ethics |newspaper=The New York Times |date=30 October 1991 |page=1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/108716925 |id={{ProQuest|108716925}}}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Joseph F. Fletcher was born in Newark, New Jersey on April 10, 1905. He graduated from West Virginia University and later attended the Berkeley Divinity School and Yale University.<ref name=Steinfels />
==Career== Fletcher, a prolific academic, taught; participated in symposia; and completed ten books, and hundreds of articles, book reviews, and translations. He taught ''Christian Ethics'' at Episcopal Divinity School (established to train people for ordination in the American Episcopal Church), Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at Harvard Divinity School from 1944 to 1970. He was the first professor of medical ethics at the University of Virginia and co-founded the ''Program in Biology and Society'' there. He retired from teaching in 1977.<ref name=Steinfels />
In 1974, the American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |title=Humanist Manifesto II |publisher=American Humanist Association |accessdate=October 14, 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020110719/http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |archivedate=October 20, 2012 }}</ref>
Fletcher grew to believe strongly in the right to die with dignity,<ref>{{cite news |last=Thrapp |first=Dan L. |title=Clergyman Advocates 'Positive' Euthanasia: Controversial Episcopal Scholar Foresees a Gradual Acceptance of Mercy Killing |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=5 August 1973 |page=1, D4 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/157359492 |id={{ProQuest|157359492}}}}</ref> and he served as president of the Euthanasia Society of America (later renamed the Society for the Right to Die) from 1974 to 1976. He was also a member of the American Eugenics Society and the Association for Voluntary Sterilization.<ref name=Steinfels />
==Personal life and death== Fletcher was active in social causes throughout his life, including labor rights. He supported the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and was assaulted on two occasions while lecturing in the South. During the McCarthy era, he was criticized by congressional committees and was labeled "the Red Churchman" by Senator Joseph McCarthy.<ref name=Steinfels />
In the late 1960s, Fletcher publicly renounced his belief in God and identified as a humanist, although he maintained relationships with religious organizations and clergy members.<ref name=Steinfels />
He was married to Forrest Hatfield Fletcher, who collaborated with birth control advocate Margaret Sanger. She died in 1988 after 60 years of marriage. Fletcher later married Elizabeth Hobbs Fletcher. He had one daughter, Jane Fletcher Geniesse, and a son, Joseph F. Fletcher Jr., who was a Harvard University historian.<ref>{{cite news |title=Joseph F. Fletcher Jr. Dies; Historian of Asia at Harvard: [Obituary] |newspaper=The New York Times |date=16 June 1984 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/425100181 |id={{ProQuest|425100181}}}}</ref><ref name=Steinfels />
Fletcher died on October 28, 1991, at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, from cardiovascular disease. He was 86 years old.<ref name=Steinfels />
== Quotes == {{Copy to Wikiquote|section=yes}} * "mercy killing" is justified for "an incorrigible 'human vegetable,' whether spontaneously functioning or artificially supported, [who] is progressively degraded while constantly eating up private or public financial resources in violation of the distributive justice owed to others." Joseph Fletcher, "Ethics and Euthanasia," in Horan and Mall, eds., Death, Dying, and Euthanasia, p. 301. * "People [with children with Down's syndrome]... have no reason to feel guilty about putting a Down's syndrome baby away, whether it's "put away" in the sense of hidden in a sanitarium or in a more responsible lethal sense. It is sad; yes. Dreadful. But it carries no guilt. True guilt arises only from an offense against a person, and a Down's is not a person."<ref name=Bard>{{cite journal|last=Bard|first=Bernard|author2=Joseph Fletcher|title=The Right to Die|journal=The Atlantic Monthly|date=April 1968|pages=59–64|url=http://www.riverbendds.org/index.htm?page=fletcher.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206172212/http://www.riverbendds.org/index.htm?page=fletcher.html|archive-date=2014-12-06}}</ref>
== Notable works == * (1954) ''Morals and Medicine'' N.J.: Princeton University Press. * (1966) ''Situation Ethics: The New Morality'', Philadelphia: Westminster Press. (translated into 5 languages) * (1974) ''The Ethics of Genetic Control: Ending Reproductive Roulette''. New York: Doubleday.
== Notes == {{reflist}}
== References == * [http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=uva-hs/viuh00030.xml Joseph Francis Fletcher Papers, The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Department of Historical Collections and Services, University of Virginia], with: ** "Memoir of an Ex-Radical," Box 20: 29 ** "Recollections," Box 20: 31
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120314182650/http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1977/v33-4-criticscorner5.htm Bibliography]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Joseph}} Category:1905 births Category:1991 deaths Category:American eugenicists Category:Christian ethicists Category:20th-century American Episcopal priests Category:Episcopal Divinity School faculty Category:Harvard Divinity School faculty Category:University of Virginia faculty Category:American humanists Category:American atheists