Christine I. Mitchell (born December 8, 1951) is an American filmmakerCode Gray: Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing on IMDbAcademy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) WorldCat entry on Code gray: ethical dilemmas in nursing references Boston-based Fanlight Productions, and film co-producers Ben Achtenberg, Joan Sawyer, and Christine Mitchell and bioethicist and until her retirement in September 2022, the executive director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School (HMS).Diane Alame, Establishing the Online Harvard Medical School Bioethics Journal, a Master's degree capstone project in the Center, supervised by Christine Mitchell, 2017, accessed October 25, 2018Miller J. Ethics Evolution: Division of Medical Ethics becomes Center for Bioethics. Harvard Medical School website. May 1, 2014. News & Research
Education Mitchell studied nursing at Boston University, where she earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in the field. She then studied philosophical and religious ethics and the ethics of care at Harvard University and the Harvard Divinity School, where she earned a master's degree.
1969 – Narragansett Regional High School, Baldwinville, Massachusetts, diploma 1973 – Boston University, School of Nursing, Boston, Massachusetts, BSN 1979 – Boston University, School of Nursing, Boston, Massachusetts, MS, Nursing and PediatricsBoston University to close nursing school. UPI Archives, JUNE 19, 1987. BU School of Nursing was closed by Dr. John Silber in 1988, while he was President of Boston University 1982 – Harvard Divinity School/Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MTS, Ethics 1982–1983 – Course Professor, Ethical issues in Health Care, Graduate Program, Boston University School of Nursing, Boston, Massachusetts 1991–1994 – Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, PhD (ABD), Ethics, Philosophy, Nursing (University Fellow)
Ethics Fellowships:
1979—1981 - Harvard Medical School, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Fellow in Medical Ethics, Interfaculty Program of Harvard University but done at HMS 1993—1994 - Harvard University, Fellowship in Ethics and the Professions at Safra CenterSafra Center profile for Christine Mitchell gives the dates of her fellowship
Academic Appointments
1976–1979 - Assistant Professor of Nursing, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, Virginia Visiting Professor, DeMontfort University, Leicester, UK Co-PI, End-of-Life Care Project, University of Zurich, Department of Biomedical Ethics and University Hospital, Zurich, SwitzerlandHermann H, Trachsel M, Mitchell M, Biller-Andorno N. Medical decision-making capacity: knowledge, attitudes, and assessment practices of physicians in Switzerland. Swiss Medical Weekly, November 2014 DOI: 10.4414/smw.2014.14039 1991–2014 - Hospital Ethicist and Director, Office of Ethics, Children's Hospital, Boston.Cromer JM. The integral role of ethics in patient well-being at Children's Hospital Boston. Boston.com. November 13, 2007 1993–2014 - Associate Director (Previously Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer), Harvard Medical School Division of Medical Ethics, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine 2014–present - Executive Director, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School
Career She is known for her role in shaping the field in clinical ethics consultations for morally difficult issues in hospital settings. She is a founding member of the American Society for Bioethics Consultation, on which she currently serves,Nano Startup Challenge in Cancer, accessed October 25, 2018membership on the ASBH Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs committee of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, as of 2010 and American Society for Bioethics and Humanities's Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs standing committee,Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs (CECA) Committee (membership), C/A/C Report, October, 2010, Page 7 of 28. Appendix AList of CECA Committee Members and most recently, the Ethics Advisory Board of the Human Brain Project's Ethics and Society Subproject, funded by the European Commission. She is a former president of the American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics, where she serves on the editorial board of its journal,Volume 44:1, Spring 2016, page 3 showing Editorial BoardVolume 36:1, Spring 2008, page 3 showing Editorial Board and the Freedom from Cancer Challenge, where she is a project Advisor.Freedom from Cancer Challenge list of Challenge Mavens
Mitchell developed an interest in nursing ethics during her years at Boston University, which led her to pursue a Master of Theological Studies degree emphasizing ethics at Harvard University and the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge. Between those two programs, however, she practiced clinical nursing for several years in Boston and Charlottesville, Virginia, where she became Assistant Professor of Nursing at University of Virginia School of Nursing.
Prior to her role with Harvard's Center for Bioethics, formerly the Division of Medical Ethics (DME) (where she had been associate director before its reorganization),to cite her role as associate director of clinical ethics: Cromer JM. The integral role of ethics in patient well-being at Children's Hospital Boston. Boston.com. November 13, 2007Miller J. Ethics Evolution: Division of Medical Ethics becomes Center for Bioethics. Harvard Medical School website. May 1, 2014. News & Research she taught ethics and professional courses for medical students and in the Master of Bioethics Degree Program while on the faculty of the HMS Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.
Her research focuses on clinical ethics consultation and public engagement in bioethics policies, including end-of-life issues, assisted reproductive technologies, and resource allocation related to major natural disasters or pandemics. Mitchell also leads the Ethics Leadership Group for Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and health care facilities. She has contributed to the development of nursing ethics as a discipline.
Center for Bioethics Mitchell has been involved in ethics work at Boston Children's Hospital,Swidly N, and Wen P. Frustration on all fronts in struggle over child's futureCourt works to untangle battle of parents, doctors, and the state. Boston Globe. 12/16/13 (Second of Two Parts). Accessed 12/31/2018. where she founded the hospital's ethics program, directed the hospital's ethics consultation service, and led its Ethics Advisory Committee for thirty years. She has provided ethics consultation at Massachusetts General Hospital, Baystate Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Salem Hospital in Salem, Massachusetts, and Maine Medical Center.
In the Center for Bioethics, Mitchell co-founded with Carol Powers, JD, the volunteer citizen Community Ethics Committee for "informed public input on ethical aspects of health care and health policies."Cognitive Impairment and Transplantation Policy, ASN Kidney News Online, accessed October 25, 2018Nano Startup Challenge in Cancer, accessed October 25, 2018 She also developed the annual Harvard Clinical Bioethics Course, leads monthly clinical ethics and Harvard Research Ethics Consortia,public posting about a Research Ethics Committee meeting on research consent issues and teaches in the HMS Fellowship in Bioethics Program.
Professional activities
Since 2002, Mitchell has edited ethics cases for The Journal of Clinical Ethics, where she has been on the editorial board since 1989 and is currently its associate editor. She lectures outside Harvard on clinical ethics issuesEthics of Caring, 5th National Nursing Ethics Conference, NNEC 25th Anniversary Reimagining Nursing from the Inside Out" An Invitation to Reflect, Celebrate, Re-Imagine, and Transform, accessed October 25, 2018 In 2009, the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities formed the Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs standing committeeClinical Ethics Consultation Affairs (CECA) Committee (membership), C/A/C Report, October, 2010, Page 7 of 28. Appendix AList of CECA Committee Members (CECA) in order to address growing concerns that those providing clinical ethics consultation (CEC) were unqualified.
She is a clinical practice team member of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics,Clinical Practice Team of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics which produced A Blueprint for 21st Century Nursing Ethics: Report of the National Nursing Summit.A BLUEPRINT FOR 21ST CENTURY NURSING ETHICS: Report of the National Nursing Summit She is a member of the advisory committeelist of Advisory Committee for ICM (Institute of Brain and Spinal Cord) for the Cambridge Consortium for Bioethics Education,Cambridge Consortium for Bioethics Education which produces and publishes Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics.Editorial Board. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Cambridge University Press, masthead, page 2, Volume 25, 2016. Accessed December 19, 2018 She also is an advisory board memberExperts Call for Ethics Rules to Protect Privacy and Free Will As Brain Implants Advance. Neuroscience News, November 13, 2017. of the Neuroethics Network (Paris). Home page for the Neuroethics Network (Paris), of which the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics is a member
In 2018, she was elected vice president of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors,homepage of Association of Bioethics Program Directors (ABPD)Association of Bioethics Program Directors (ABPD) list of Directors
Films and media
Mitchell's first ethics media was an instructional interactive computer videodisc in 1990, Nursing Ethics and Law, which she produced with two collaborators.
With filmmaker Ben AchtenbergFanlight Productions founder Profile of filmmaker Ben Achtenberg lists Academy Award Nomination among its awards (with whom she has worked for over 26 years, and sometimes with others) she has produced six documentary videos. She was an associate producer of "Code Gray: Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing", a documentary film, which was nominated for (but not awarded) an Academy Award in 1984;Code Gray: Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing on IMDbAcademy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) their 2002 video, Stanley, about ethical decisions in caring for a patient with end stage kidney failure, was part of a 3-film documentary series Icarus Films: Films from independent producers worldwide page highlighting The Fanlight Collection 'Caring at the End of Life' Series (3 films) directed by Ben Achtenberg and Christine Mitchell and awarded a 2004 Freddie award for medical media. Their 2003 video, Everyday Choices, concerned a visiting nurse and an elderly patient facing ethical questions about waning capacities and independence.Fanlight Productions page for Everyday Choices produced by Ben Achtenberg & Christine Mitchell, RN, FAAN
She is an advisor to The Refugee Media Project, sponsored by The Center for Independent Documentary,The Center for Independent Documentary also of Boston.
Awards 1983, MNA Nursing Practice Award, Massachusetts Nursing Association (MNA)Past Recipients of MNA Award, Accessed October 25, 2018 1984 Academy Award nomination, short documentary Code Gray: Ethical Dilemmas in NursingCode Gray: Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing on IMDbAcademy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) WorldCat entry on Code gray: ethical dilemmas in nursing references Boston-based Fanlight Productions, and film co-producers Ben Achtenberg, Joan Sawyer, and Christine Mitchell 1985, MNA Image of the Professional Nurse Award - Christine I. Mitchell, Massachusetts Nursing Association (MNA)Past Recipients of MNA Award, Accessed October 25, 2018 2004, International Freddie Award for medical media