Michael McCarthy, PhD, HEC-C

Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director

Michael McCarthy, PhD, HEC-C is an Associate Professor and the Graduate Program Director for Healthcare Mission Leadership.  He received his PhD in Theology from Loyola University Chicago where he developed a social ethic for medical research by drawing on the thought of Ignacio Ellacuría.  His interest at the intersection of social ethics and Catholic healthcare led to co-editing, with Dr. M. Therese Lysaught, Catholic Bioethics and Social Justice: the Praxis of U.S. Healthcare in a Globalized World (Liturgical Press, 2019).  In addition to questions of justice and inequality in healthcare, his scholarly publications have focused on spirituality in medicine, medical research and Catholic universities, and the role of formation in medical education.  His work has been published in the Journal for Moral Theology, the Journal for the Society of Christian Ethics, and the American Journal for Bioethics.  In the classroom, Dr. McCarthy strives to help students lay the theological foundations to develop as successful leaders in Catholic Healthcare.  He teaches courses that explore the Ethical and Religious Directives, moral theology for Catholic bioethics, and most recently the ethics of Artificial Intelligence.  As a part of the department of Medical Education, he serves as the co-director of the Physician’s Vocation Program (PVP) with Dr. John Hardt.  He is also a member of the ethics committee and ethics consultation service for Loyola University Health System.

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Education

• PhD, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago IL
• MTS, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Cambridge, MA

Courses Taught

• BEHL 409 Religion and Bioethics
• BEHL 414 Moral Theology for Bioethics
• BEHL 415 Catholic Bioethics in Clinical Practice
• BEHL 416 Catholic Bioethics and Social Justice
• BEHL 426 Ignatian Spirituality and Medicine
• BEHL 510 Integrated Seminar in Ethics,Theology & Healthcare: Theology of Place and the Ethics of AI
• BEHL 423/424 Doctoral Capstone I & II

Publications/Research Listings

Publications:

• McCarthy M. (forthcoming) The Role of Religion in an Increasingly Secular Bioethics Discourse. In Smith, K. editor, Bioethics and Religion: Exploring the Intersection. Berlin, Germany: Springer Nature.
• McCarthy M. (2023) The Necessity of Sentient Intelligence and Self-Constitution for Superintelligence, Divus Thomas 126 (2).
• McCarthy M. (2022) Responding from the place of suffering. In Mandry, C editor. Suffering in Medicine, Theology and Medical Ethics. Stuttgart, Germany: Brill.
• McCarthy M. (2021) Beyond a Bourgeois Bioethics. Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 41(1): 73-88.
• McCarthy M. (2021) An Anatheistic Wager for Bioethics. American Journal of Bioethics 21(6): 26-28.
• McCarthy M. (2020). Navigating the Ethics of University-Based Medical Research. Journal of Moral Theology 9(2): 72-90.
• McCarthy M, Homan M, Rozier M. (2020). There's No Harm in Talking: Re-Establishing the Relationship Between Theological and Secular Bioethics. American Journal of Bioethics 20(12): 5-13.
• Wasson K, Adams WH, Berkowitz K, Danis M, Derse AR, Kuczewski MG, McCarthy M, Parsi K, Tarzian AJ. (2019). What Is the Minimal Competency for a Clinical Ethics Consult Simulation? Setting a Standard for Use of the Assessing Clinical Ethics Skills (ACES) Tool. AJOB Empirical Bioethics, DOI: 10.1080/23294515.2019.1634653.
• McCarthy M, McCarthy V. (2019) What Could Go Wrong? Providing a Moral Grounding to the Ethics of Short-Term Medicine. Global Health and Volunteering - A Guide for Healthcare Professionals (eds, Olivier MMG, Croteau-Chonka C). Springer Publishing.

Presentations:

• December 6, 2024
  Discerning Responsibility: Exploring the Intersection of Ethics and AI in Healthcare
  Endeavor Health Grand Rounds, Evanston, IL
• December 4, 2024
  Integrating AI and the Role of the Clinical Ethicist, Emerging Topics in Catholic Healthcare Ethics
  Catholic Health Association
• November 20, 2024
  Agency and Ethics: Agentic AI in Healthcare
  IDEAL Workshop, Loyola University Chicago
• November 19, 2024
  Balancing Innovation and Responsibility: A Discussion on the Role of AI in Healthcare Leadership
  Plenary Panel, National Center for Healthcare Leadership Conference, Chicago, IL
• May 22, 2024
  Clinical Ethics and Caring for Immigrant Refugee Patients
  Colorado Healthcare Ethics Forum, Denver, CO
• April 17, 2024
  AI in Medicine and the Role of the Clinical Ethicist
  2024-2025 Ethics and Spiritual Care Champions, Trinity Health

Awards

• 2019 Catholic Press Association Award, Catholic Social Thought (Honorable Mention) for Catholic Bioethics and Social Justice: The Praxis of US Health Care in a Globalized World (Liturgical Press, 2019)