Interview with Adrienne Asch

Abstract

Adrienne Asch is the Edward and Robin Millstein Professor of Bioethics at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, both at Yeshiva University in New York. Asch received a BA in Philosophy from Swarthmore College, an MS in Social Work and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Columbia University. Much of her scholarship examines issues of bio-ethics, reproduction, and disability. A long-time member of the Society for Disability Studies, she served as its president from 1996 to 1998. In 1997, she was named Blind Educator of the Year by the National Federation of the Blind, and in 2001, she was awarded an honorary degree from Swarthmore College. Asch has been a member of the board of directors of the American Society for Bioethics in Humanities and served on the Clinton Task Force on Healthcare Reform and the Ethnical, Legal, and Social Implications Policy Planning Group of the National Human Genome Research Institute. She has also served on the board of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters and is editor with Eric Parens of Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights, and a co-editor of The Double-Edge Helix: Social Implications of Genetics in a Diverse Society. She is currently working on a book on assisted reproduction.