S. Van McCrary, PhD, JD, MPH

Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine
Chair of the Institutional Ethics Committee's Ethics Consultation Subcommittee
Director of the Ethics Consultation Service

Clinical Biomedical Ethics (Neonatal and Adult)
Health Law and Policy
Medical Decision Making
Psychiatric Issues in Bioethics

Office Phone: (631) 444-9676
e-mail:Stephen.V.McCrary@stonybrook.edu

S. Van McCrary is Associate Professor in the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, Department of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, New York.  He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch, an M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins University, a J.D. from the University of Tennessee, and a B.A. from Vanderbilt University.  His previous academic experience includes appointments at Baylor College of Medicine; University of Houston Law Center; University of Florida College of Medicine; University of Copenhagen, Denmark; and East Carolina University School of Medicine; as well as two years in the private practice of law.

Dr. McCrary teaches, researches, writes, and consults in a variety of areas including clinical biomedical ethics, ethical and legal aspects of the care of dying patients, medical decision making, health law and policy, ethical issues in neonatology, psychiatric advance directives, conflicts of interest in biomedical research, and psychiatric issues in bioethics consultation.  He has published widely in both medical and legal journals, and is frequently invited to speak at national and international conferences.  He also serves as a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Ethics and Law, University of Copenhagen.  In 2006 as a Visiting Scholar, Dr. McCrary presented the Gheens Foundation Lecture in Humanism at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Most recently, he was the recipient of a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award for lecturing and program assessment in New Zealand on pediatric health law and policy, and clinical ethics consultation.

Recent Publications

Shah SI, McCrary SV. Assisted reproductive technologies: Impact on neonatology and a call for reform. Journal of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine 2010;  3: 77-84.©

McCrary SV. Therapeutic Privilege. Journal of Clinical Ethics 2010; 21 (1): 44©

McCrary SV. Transferring Emerging Neuroscience to the Clinical Ethics Bedside. American Journal of Bioethics AJOB-Neuroscience 2009;9 (9), 21-23. ©

McCrary SV.  Neonatology and the Specter of the Law.  Journal of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine 2009; 2 (2): 69-81.

Selected Others

Coulehan J, Belling C, Williams PC, McCrary SV, Vetrano M.  “Human Contexts: Medicine in Society at Stony Brook University School of Medicine.”  Academic Medicine 2003; 78 (10): 987-992.

Brody BA, Anderson C, McCrary SV, McCullough L, Morgan R, Wray N.  “Expanding Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest: The Views of StakeholdersIRB2003; 25 (1): 1-8.

Coulehan J, Williams PC, McCrary SV, Belling C.  The Best Lack All Conviction: Biomedical Ethics, Professionalism, and Social Responsibility.” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2003; 12: 21-38.

McCrary SV, McCullough LB, Brody BA.  "Policy Development on Conflicts of Interest." The New England Journal of Medicine 2001; 344 (13): 1018.

McCrary SV, Anderson CB, Jakovljevic J, Khan T, McCullough LB, Wray NP, Brody BA.  “A National Survey of Policies on Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest in Biomedical Research.”  The New England Journal of Medicine  2000; 343 (22): 1621-1626. PDF

McCrary SV, Swanson JW.  "Physicians' Legal Defensiveness and Knowledge of Medical Law: Comparing Denmark and the U.S.A.”  Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 1999; 27 (1): 18-21.

Swanson JW, McCrary SV.  "Medical Futility Decisions and Physicians' Legal Defensiveness: The Impact of Anticipated Conflict on Thresholds for End-of-Life Treatment."  Social Science & Medicine 1996; 42 (1): 125-132.

Swanson JW, McCrary SV.  "Doing All They Can: Physicians Who Deny Medical Futility."  Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics (Formerly Law, Medicine & Health Care) 1994; 22 (4): 318-326.

Christensen RC, McCrary SV.  "Treatment Refusal by an Elderly Man Suffering Intensely from Treatment-Resistant Depression."  Psychiatric Services 1995; 46 (2): 181-183.

McCrary SV, Swanson JW, Youngner SJ, Perkins HS, Winslade WJ.  "Physicians' Quantitative Assessments of Medical Futility."  Journal of Clinical Ethics 1994; 5 (2): 100-105.

McCrary SV, Swanson JW, Perkins HS, Winslade WJ.  "Treatment Decisions for Terminally Ill Patients: Physicians' Legal Defensiveness and Knowledge of Medical Law."  Law, Medicine & Health Care  1992; 20 (4): 364-376.

McCrary SV, Botkin JR.  "Hospital Policy on Advance Directives: Do Institutions Ask Patients About Living Wills?"  JAMA 1989; 262 (17): 2411-2414.