Associate Professor, Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis
aplutyns@wustl.edu
Web bio

My main areas of interest and research in the area of bioethics broadly conceived is patient decision-making about care, particularly in the context of cancer, and issues surrounding communication of risk between patients and clinicians. I am also interested in how these issues bear on larger questions concerning informed consent and research ethics, as well as their bearing on clinical ethics. I am also interested in the aims and scope of personalized medicine, and its relationship to evidence-based medicine. My main area of research is history and philosophy of biology and biomedical sciences. My current book project is on cancer, both its heterogeneity, its unique character as a disease, and the challenges this presents to providing a unified scientific explanation of cancer.

• Under contract with Oxford University Press: Explaining Cancer: Philosophical Issues in Cancer Causation and Prevention.
• “Ethics in Biomedical Research and Practice,” 2013. in The Philosophy of Biology; History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences Volume 1, 2013, pp 705-722. Springer. Edited by Kampourakis, K.
• “Ethical Issues in Cancer Screening and Prevention.” 2012. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. 37 (3): 310-323.
• For more, see this Link to my google scholar citations: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PkS_32cAAAAJ&hl=en
• Experience: Affiliate of the Medical School at the University of Utah, from 2012-13; gave guest lectures to first year Med students on cancer; led discussion in their Ethics practicum for several years.