William Stempsey
Professor - On Leave until Fall 2026

Books
William E. Stempsey. Disease and Diagnosis: Value-Dependent Realism. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999. Paperback edition, 2000.
William E. Stempsey, editor. Elisha Bartlett鈥檚 Philosophy of Medicine. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005.
Journal Issues
William E. Stempsey, editor. Institutional Identity and Roman Catholic Hospitals. Christian Bioethics, vol. 7, no. 1, 2001.
William E. Stempsey, editor. Jesuit Education and the Ratio Studiorum. Fundamental Questions: A Journal of the Liberal Arts, vol. 1, no. 1, 2004.
William E. Stempsey, section editor. Medical Humanities. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, vol. 10, no. 4, 2007.
William E. Stempsey, editor. Clinical Reasoning: New Challenges. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, vol. 30, no. 3, 2009.
Book Chapters
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭his Cancer鈥檚 My Punishment, Isn鈥檛 It?鈥擥uilt, Shame and Medicine.鈥 In Philosophy for Medicine: Applications in a Clinical Context. Edited by Martyn Evans, Pekka Louhiala and Raimo Puustinen, 47-62. Oxford: Radcliffe Medical Press, 2004.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淔orming Physicians for the Poor: The Role of Medical and Premedical Education.鈥 In The Role of Jesuit Health Sciences Education Programs in Promoting Justice: An Invitation to Discussion. Edited by Jos V.M. Welie and Judith Lee Kissell, 131-151. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2004.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淎 Philosophical Dissection of a Jesuit Scholar.鈥 In Jesuit Postmodern: Scholarship, Vocation, and Identity in the 21st Century. Edited by Francis X. Clooney, S.J., 45-63. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2006.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淐ommentary: The Medicine of Philosophy.鈥 In Practicing Catholic: Ritual, Body, and Contestation in Catholic Faith. Edited by Bruce T. Morrill, Joanna E. Ziegler, and Susan Rodgers, 270-273, 313. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淗eterologous Embryo Transfer: Metaphor and Morality.鈥 In The Ethics of Embryo Adoption and the Catholic Tradition. Edited by Sarah-Vaughan Brakman and Darlene Fozard Weaver, 25-41. New York: Springer, 2007.
Reference Work Articles
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淢edical Humanities.鈥 In Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, vol 3. Edited by Ruth Chadwick, 90-98. San Diego: Academic Press, 2012.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淎pplying Medical Knowledge: Diagnosing Disease.鈥 In Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine. Edited by Thomas Schramme and Steven Edwards, chapter 31-1. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 16 July2015. DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-8706-2_31-1 (Online continually updated reference work).
Articles (Peer-Reviewed)
Mark L. Graber, Richard H. Quigg, William E. Stempsey and Steven Weis. 鈥淪purious Hyper颅chloremia and Decreased Anion Gap in Hyperlipidemia.鈥 Annals of Internal Medicine 98 (Part 1) (1983): 607-9.
Cynthia A. Needham and William Stempsey. 鈥淚ncidence, Adherence, and Antibi颅otic Resistance of Coagulase-Negative Staphylo颅coccus Species Causing Human Disease.鈥 Diagnostic Microbi颅ol颅ogy and Infectious Diseases 2 (1984): 293-99.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Virtuous Pathologist: An Ethical Basis for Labora颅tory Medicine.鈥 American Journal of Clinical Pathology 91 (1989): 730-38.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淎nother Look at Physician-Assisted Suicide.鈥 Journal of Pastoral Care 48 (1994): 215-21.
Robert M. Veatch and William E. Stempsey, 鈥淚ncommensurability: Its Implications for the Patient/Physician Relation.鈥 Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 20 (1995): 253-69. Reprinted in James Lindemann Nelson and Hilde Lindemann Nelson, eds., Meaning and Medicine: A Reader in the Philosophy of Health Care (New York and London: Routledge, 1999), 95-105.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淧aying People to Give Up Their Organs: The Problem with Commodification of Body Parts.鈥 Medical Humanities Review 10 (Fall 1996): 45-55.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淓nd-of-Life Decisions: Christian Perspectives.鈥 Christian Bioethics 3 (1997): 249-61.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淟aying Down One鈥檚 Life for Oneself.鈥 Christian Bioethics 4 (1998): 202-224.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淐ausation and Moral Responsibility for Death.鈥 The Paideia Archives, Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 4 (1998): 171-176. .
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Quarantine of Philosophy in Medical Education: Why Teaching the Humanities May Not Produce Humane Physicians.鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 2 (1999): 3-9.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淎 Pathological View of Disease.鈥 Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 21 (2000): 321-330.
William E. Stempsey, 鈥淥rgan Markets and Human Dignity: On Selling Your Body and Soul.鈥 Christian Bioethics 6 (2000): 195-204.
William E. Stempsey, 鈥淧lato and Holistic Medicine.鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 4 (2001): 201-209.
William E. Stempsey, 鈥淚nstitutional Identity and Roman Catholic Hospitals,鈥 Christian Bioethics 7 (2001): 3-14.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淢iracles and the Limits of Medical Knowledge.鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 5 (2002): 1-9. Russian translation (效褍写械褋邪 懈 谐褉邪薪懈褑褘 屑械写懈褑懈薪褋泻芯谐芯 蟹薪邪薪懈褟) posted at http://www.psyobsor.org/1998/15/1-1.php
Bettina F. Piko and William E. Stempsey. 鈥淧hysicians of the Future: Renaissance of Polymaths?鈥 Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health 122 (2002): 233-237.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淎 New Stoic: The Wise Patient.鈥 Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 29 (2004): 451-472.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Philosophy of Medicine: Development of a Discipline.鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 7 (2004): 243-251.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淩eligion, Philosophy, and the Commodification of Human Body Parts.鈥 DePaul Law Review 55 (2006): 875-888. Excerpted in Janet L. Dolgin and Lois L. Shepherd, eds., Bioethics and the Law, 2d ed. (Austin: Aspen Publishers, 2009), 102-104.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Geneticization of Diagnostics.鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 9 (2006): 193-200.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淓merging Medical Technologies and Emerging Conceptions of Health.鈥 Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 27 (2006): 227-243.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淪pontaneous Human Combustion and Other Imaginary Maladies.鈥 Interfaces 26 (2006-2007): 111-122.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淢edical Humanities: Introduction to the Theme.鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 10 (2007): 359-361.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淢edical Humanities and Philosophy: Is the Universe Expanding or Contracting?鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 10 (2007): 373-383.
George R. Hoffmann and William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Hormesis Concept and Risk Assessment: Are There Unique Ethical and Policy Considerations? Human and Experimental Toxicology 27 (2008): 613-620.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淧hilosophy of Medicine Is What Philosophers of Medicine Do.鈥 Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 51 (2008): 379-391.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淐linical Reasoning: New Challenges.鈥 Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 30 (2009): 173-179.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Role of Religion in the Debate about Physician-Assisted Dying.鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 13 (2010): 383-387.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淩eligion and Bioethics: Can We Talk?鈥 Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 8 (2011): 339-350.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淏ioethics Needs Religion.鈥 American Journal of Bioethics 12 (2012): 17-18.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淒eath and the Paradox of Blessing and Burden.鈥 Theoretical and Applied Ethics 2 (2013): 115-119.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淗ope for Health and Health Care.鈥 Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 18 (2015): 41-49.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Penetrating Gaze and the Decline of the Autopsy.鈥 AMA Journal of Ethics 18 (2016): 833-838.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淩econciling Reductionistic and Holistic Theories of Health with Weak Emergence.鈥 Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 20 (2018): 29-33.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥Homo religiosus: The Soul of Bioethics.鈥 Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 46 (2021):238-253.
Articles (Other)
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Big Blue Van and the Little Children.鈥 America 168, no. 9 (March 13, 1993): 8-12.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淭he Battle for Medical Marijuana in the War on Drugs.鈥 America 178, no. 12 (April 11, 1998): 14-16.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淣o Biblical Warrant for Suicide.鈥 Ethics & Medics 24, no. 6 (June 1999): 1-2.
Correspondence
Ronald H. Ng, William Stempsey and Bernard E. Statland. 鈥淏iphasic Profile in the Elimina颅tion of Digoxin from Serum after a Massive Overdose.鈥 Clinical Chemistry 29 (1983): 393-94.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淒ifficulties of Describing an Ethic in a Polyglot Nation: The Author's Reply.鈥 American Journal of Clinical Pathology 93 (1990): 165-66.
William E. Stempsey. 鈥淧rocedural Safeguards for Euthanasia.鈥 New England Journal of Medicine 327 (1992): 201.
Book Reviews
William E. Stempsey. BioEngagement. Making a Christian Difference through Bioethics Today, edited by N. M. de S. Cameron, S. E. Daniels, and B. J. White. Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2000. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 5 (2002): 96-97.
William E. Stempsey. Transplantation Ethics, by Robert M. Veatch. Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press, 2000. Theological Studies 63 (2002): 413-415.
William E. Stempsey. God and the Embryo: Religious Voices on Stem Cells and Cloning, edited by B. Waters and R. Cole-Turner. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2003. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 7 (2004): 356.
William E. Stempsey. Ethics and the Metaphysics of Medicine: Reflections on Health and Beneficence, by Kenneth A. Richman. Cambridge: MIT Press (2004). Philosophy of Science 73 (2006): 125-127.
William E. Stempsey. The Ethics of Bioethics: Mapping the Moral Landscape, edited by Lisa A. Eckenwiler and Felicia G. Cohn. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press (2007). Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 29 (2008): 121-124.
William E. Stempsey. The Ignatian Adventure: Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius in Daily Life, by Kevin O鈥橞rien, S.J. Chicago: Loyola Press (2011). Conversations No. 46 (Fall 2014): 41.
William E. Stempsey. Flourishing: Health, Disease, and Bioethics in Theological Perspective, by Neil Messer. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans (2013). Journal of Religion 95 (2015): 574-575.
William E. Stempsey. The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Medicine, edited by Miriam Solomon, Jeremy R. Simon, and Harold Kincaid. New York and London: Routledge (2017). Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 38 (2017): 495-499.