Andrew M. Flescher, PhD

Associate Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Medical Humanities
Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics
Affiliated Faculty
Department of English

Theories of Compassion, Altruism, and Supererogation
Ethics
Religion and Health Care
Medical Humanities
Bioethics
Religion and Society
Methods and Theory of Religion

Office Phone: (631) 638-1014; Email:andrew.flescher@stonybrook.edu

Dr. Andrew M. Flescher is an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University specializing in Religion, Ethics, and Medical Humanities, is the Director for the Masters Program in Compassionate Care, Bioethics, and Medical Humanities, and is a member of the board of Stony Brook's Humanities Institute. He currently serves on the Stony Brook Hospital Ethics Committee and Organ Donor Council in which capacity Dr. Flescher was invited to Barbados in May to meet with the health minister and legislature to discuss the country's implementation of a new transplantation program. Dr. Flescher was previously (2000–2009) Associate Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Society at California State University, Chico, where he served as the director for the Center for Applied and Professional Ethics for five years (2001-2006). He received his B.A. in Medieval and Renaissance Studies and History from Duke University (1991) and his M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (2000) in Religious Studies from Brown University. He has published articles and book reviews in the Journal of Religion, Journal of Religion and Society, Dialogue and Alliance, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, among others. He is the author of three books: Heroes, Saints, and Ordinary Morality (Georgetown University Press, 2003), The Altruistic Species : Scientific, Philosophical, and Religious Perspectives of Human Benevolence, co-authored with Daniel L. Worthen (Templeton Press, 2007) and Moral Evil (Georgetown University, in press) The Altruistic Species earned the Choice award for outstanding academic title (2009) and the course which inspired it, “What Motivates Altruism?,” taught with co-author Dr. Daniel Worthen, won a national award. Dr. Flescher performs on the piano on Thursday afternoons for patients in the Stony Brook Hospital lobby.