DEPARTMENT OF BIOETHICS

Jessica Wilen Berg, J.D.

Professor of Law and Bioethics

Bioethics and Law
Informed Consent and Advance Directives
End-of-Life Decision Making
Reproductive Law and Ethics
Research Law and Ethics
E-Medicine

Office Phone: 216-368-6363
e-mail: jwb14@po.cwru.edu

NIH Biosketch

Bio

Jessica Wilen Berg is a Professor of Law and Bioethics. She has a joint appointment in Case Western Reserve University's School of Law and the Department of Bioethics at the Medical School. She received her B.A. and J.D., with honors, from Cornell University, where she was a notes editor of the Cornell Law Review.

Ms. Berg joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve in 1999, after serving as the Director of Academic Affairs of the Institute for Ethics, and Secretary of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs for the American Medical Association. Before that, she was a Visiting Professor at Michigan State Medical School, a Scholar in Excellence at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and a Fellow at both the Center for Biomedical Ethics and the Institute for Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.

Ms. Berg teaches Law and Bioethics. Her publications and research span a variety of areas, including informed consent, research with human subjects, reproductive law and ethics, confidentiality of medical information, mental health law, professional self-regulation, and E-medicine.

Recent Publications

Berg J, Mehlman M, Rubin D, Kodish E, “Making All the Children Above Average: Ethical and Regulatory Concerns for Pediatricians in Pediatric Enhancement Research,” 48 (5) Clinical Pediatrics 472 (2009).

Mehlman M, Berg J, “Human Subjects Protections in Biomedical Enhancement Research: Assessing Risk and Benefit and Obtaining Informed Consent,” 36 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 546 (2008).

Recent Activities

“Adolescent Informed Consent” Seattle Children’s Hospital Annual Bioethics Conference, 7/25/09.

“Pregnant Women and Public Health Ethics: Challenges During Pandemics and Disasters,” Annual Bioethics Summer Retreat, 6/26/09.

“International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law,” Management of Humanitarian Emergencies: Focus on Children and Families, Cleveland 6/19/09.

“IVF, Embryos, Stem Cells, Research and Law,” At the Cutting Edge of Stem Cell Science, Harvard University, 6/16/09.

“Confidentiality and Its Limits” Cleveland Clinic Grand Rounds Department of Bioethics 2/3/09.

“Health Care Reform, Ethics and Universities” American Association of University Presidents (AAUP), Cleveland, 10/20/08.

“Building Better Humans” American Society of Bioethics and Humanities Annual Meeting, Cleveland, 10/23/08.

“Role of International Law in Promoting Global Public Health”  American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, 10/27/08.

“Conundrum of Community: An analysis of ethical guidelines for genetic research and community engagement” American Public Health Association Annual Meeting San Diego, 10/28/08.

“Medical Confidentiality and its Limits,” Case Western Reserve University Continuing Education Conference, 9/12/08.

“Tax-exempt Hospitals and Community Benefit”, Annual Health Law Professor’s Conference, Philadelphia, 6/6/08.

Professor Berg received an MPH degree in May, 2009 from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Professor Berg was named the 2008 Health Policy Researcher of the Year by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.

Contact Information

Office Phone: 216-368-6363
e-mail: jwb14@po.cwru.edu