Dr. John Lantos, director of the Bioethics Center at Children’s Mercy Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine, was honored with the William G. Bartholome Award for Ethical Excellence at the recent National Conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in Orlando, Florida.
The Bartholome Award recognizes an individual who has significantly impacted public discussion of ethical issues in pediatric medicine. Lantos presented a talk at the AAP Convention on “Ethical Problems in Decision Making in the Neonatal ICU” in conjunction with receiving the prestigious award.
Dr. Keith J. Barrington, a neonatologist and clinical researcher at Sainte Justine University Health Center in Montréal, wrote in the medical blog neonatalresearch.org: “It would be hard to think of anyone who has done more for that than John Lantos. He has published several hundred articles and several books (seven I think), and now edits the series in ‘Pediatrics’ of case-based discussions of thorny ethical problems.”
Lantos earned his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and did his residency at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He was on faculty at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine for more than 20 years before he moved to Kansas City to become the inaugural holder of the John B. Francis Chair in Bioethics at the Center for Practical Bioethics. After two years there, he moved over to Children’s Mercy, where, with the generous support of hospital President Rand O’Donnell and Pediatrics Department Chair Michael Artmen, he started one of the first children’s hospital-based bioethics centers in the world. That center now trains child health professionals from around the world to become institutional leaders in bioethics.
Lantos’ research areas include bioethics, doctor–patient communication, research ethics, end-of-life care and the religious and philosophical issues in relation to healthcare.
He is especially interested in the ethics of medical clinical trials.
Lantos was formerly president of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics. He has appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Larry King Live,” National Public Radio and “Nightline.” He is an associate editor of the “American Journal of Bioethics,” “Pediatrics,” “Perspectives in Biology and Medicine” and “Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care.”
Lantos said, “It was a tremendous honor to receive this award, especially because it was named after fellow Kansas Citian William Bartholome. Bill was a pioneer and a leader in pediatric bioethics, a mentor and an inspiration to me, and a revered member of the faculty at KUMC for many years. It is nice to think that his legacy lives on.”
Lantos and his wife, Martha Montello, a fellow medical ethicist, belong to Congregation Beth Torah.