“God doesn't change His mind to conform to opinion polls - we did not elect Him to be God, and we cannot vote Him out of the office.”

Peter Kreeft

Prof. Lauris C. Kaldjian, MD., PhD

Professor Kaldjian, is the Director of the Program in Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, where he holds the Richard M. Caplan Chair in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities and is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine.

He received his MD from the University of Michigan, an MDiv and PhD in Religious Ethics from Yale University, and completed residency and fellowship training at Yale in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. His research has focused on ethical issues in end of life care, disclosure of medical errors, ethics education, and the role of philosophical and religious beliefs in clinical decision making.

From 2008-10 his work was funded by the John Templeton Foundation, which led to the publication of Practicing Medicine and Ethics: Integrating Wisdom, Conscience, and Goals of Care (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

At the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Dr. Kaldjian practices outpatient General Internal Medicine, chairs the Ethics Committee, and serves as a clinical ethics consultant. In the College of Medicine, he directs the Biomedical Ethics Thread in the College's curriculum and co-directs the Humanities Distinction Track and the Personal-Professional Compass program.

Dr. Kaldjian served on the Ethics Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing, chaired the Ethics Committee of the Society of General Internal Medicine, and served as a Deputy Editor for the Journal of General Internal Medicine. He currently chairs the Committee on Law and Ethics of the Iowa Medical Society.