Beyond the Hippocratic Oath: A Memoir on the Rise of Modern Medical Ethics

John Dossetor is a physician, trained in the UK (Oxford and St Bart's Hosp., London) who came to McGill on a one-year Teaching Fellow appointment in 1955, after completion of two years as a Medical Officer with the Gurkhas, in India. He has lived in Canada ever since. The 13 years at McGill were followed by 27 years at the University of Alberta. Circumstances led to him co-ordinating the first kidney transplant in Canada (and the Commonwealth) in 1958. This directed him into a professional interest in Nephrology and Kidney Transplant Immunology and, later, to being Co-Director of the MRC Transplant Group at the University of Alberta. In 1986, there was a career change into Medical Ethics and the next 10-12 years were spent developing that area of interest. This led to the formation of the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, under the auspices of the Health Science Faculties in 1998. Since 1998, John has lived in Ottawa.