Dossetor, John B. 1925–

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Dossetor, John B. 1925–

PERSONAL:

Born July 19, 1925, in Bangalore, India; immigrated to Canada, 1955; son of Ernest and Jesse Beamish Dossetor; married, February 7, 1957; wife's name Margaret; children: Frances Mary, John Bernard, Clare Brigid, Moita Margaret. Education: Graduated from Marlborough College, 1943; Oxford University, M.D., 1950; McGill University, Ph.D., 1961.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. E-mail— [email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and medical doctor. McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, assistant professor, then associate professor, 1956-69; University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, professor, 1970-95, emeritus professor, 1995—. Cofounder of Kidney Foundation of Canada. Military service: Royal Army Medical Corps, served for two years in India, Malaysia, and Singapore.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, 2003; 125 Canadian Confederation Medal, 1992; Order of Canada, 1995.

WRITINGS:

(With M. Henry Gault)Nephron Failure: Conservation, Substitution, Replacement, Thomas (Springfield, IL), 1971.

(Editor, with W. Land)Organ Replacement Therapy: Ethics, Justice, Commerce: First Joint Meeting of ESOT and EDTA/ERA, Munich, December, 1990, Springer-Verlag (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor, with Carl M. Kjellstrand)Ethical Problems in Dialysis and Transplantation, Kluwer Academic (Boston, MA), 1992.

(With Vangie Bergum)Relational Ethics: The Full Meaning of Respect, University Publishing Group (Hagerstown, MD), 2005.

Beyond the Hippocratic Oath: A Memoir on the Rise of Modern Medical Ethics, University of Alberta Press (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

John B. Dossetor is a medical doctor, academician, and writer. Dossetor graduated from Marlborough College in 1943 and earned his medical degree from Oxford University in 1950. He later served two years of national service with the Royal Army Medical Corps in India, Malaysia, and Singapore. In 1955 he immigrated to Canada to become a teaching fellow at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. In 1958 he cocoordinated Canada's first kidney transplant. In 1961 Dossetor completed his Ph.D. at McGill University in experimental medicine. After this point, his research focus centered on renal transplants. He later became an associate professor and chief medical resident before leaving McGill University in 1969. In 1970 Dossetor moved to the University of Alberta in Edmonton, as a professor of medicine. He was named director of the Division of Nephrology and Immunology and codirector of a Medical Research Council of Canada research group in transplantation. Dossetor was responsible for expanding the University of Alberta's program in nephrology, the study of kidney diseases and functions. Dossetor eventually started to focus on the ethical issues of transplantation and became the university's first professor of bioethics. By 1986, he was named director of the university's Joint-Faculties Bioethics Project, later called the John Dossetor Health Centre. In 1995 Dossetor became professor emeritus at the University of Alberta.

Dossetor is the cofounder of the Kidney Foundation of Canada and is widely considered to be the father of nephrology, dialysis, and transplantation in Canada. His accomplishments in the areas of transplantation and renal medical studies have been honored on national and international levels. In 1992 he was awarded the 125 Canadian Confederation Medal. Three years later he was named to the Order of Canada. In 2003 he received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. Dossetor also published several scholarly books. In 1971 he published his first book with M. Henry Gault called Nephron Failure: Conservation, Substitution, Replacement. In 1992 he edited Ethical Problems in Dialysis and Transplantation with Carl M. Kjellstrand. And in 2005 he wrote Relational Ethics: The Full Meaning of Respect with Vangie Bergum.

In the same year Dossetor wrote a memoir called Beyond the Hippocratic Oath: A Memoir on the Rise of Modern Medical Ethics. The memoir covers his pioneering in the field of nephrology and his role in the rise of bioethics. Reviews for the account were mostly positive. In the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Lawrence J. Hergott commented that "mostly, the writing progresses interestingly, weaving the book's themes in a way that carries the narrative along, and allows us to get to know the author somewhat as a person as well." Hergott found that occasionally, however, "the author gets too detailed or technical for most readers." A contributor to the Midwest Book Review "very strongly recommended" Beyond the Hippocratic Oath.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dossetor, John B.,Beyond the Hippocratic Oath: A Memoir on the Rise of Modern Medical Ethics, University of Alberta Press (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 2005.