Research Associate Professor of Bioethics

Office: NH M424
Phone: 503-725-3499
Email: backlarp@pdx.edu

Biography

Patricia Backlar is Research Associate Professor of Bioethics, and Director of the Biomedical Ethics Certificate Sequence, Department of Philosophy, Portland State University; Senior Scholar, Center for Ethics in Health Care, and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health Sciences University; Editor of the Ethics Section of the Community Mental Health Journal.

Among her current professional positions, she serves on the Oregon State Hospital Ethics Committee, the Oregon State Hospital Institutional Review Board (IRB), The Oregon Health & Science University Stem Cell Research Oversight (OSCRO) Committee, the Oregon Public Health Genetics Plan Advisory Council, co-chairs the Oregon Advisory Committee on Genetic Privacy and Research, is immediate past chair of the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Advisory Council (Adult Mental Health and Substance Abuse), and serves as a consultant to the Veterans Health Administration on the implementation of the Mental Health Advance Directive.

Professor Backlar has authored and co-authored over 70 journal articles, book chapters, books, and government reports on bioethical and policy issues relevant to biomedical research, clinical practice, and community psychiatric practice. Included among her publications are: The Family Face of Schizophrenia, New York: Putnam; 1994, paperback, 1995; Can I Plan Now for the Mental Health Treatment I Would Want If I Were In Crisis? A Guide to Oregon's Declaration for Mental Health Treatment, State of Oregon: Office of Mental Health Services, Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services Division; 1994, updated, August 2000. Her most recent book (co-edited with David L. Cutler) is Ethics in Community Mental Health Care: Commonplace Concerns, Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers, 2002.

In 1996, Professor Backlar was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a commissioner on the presidentially chartered National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC), where she participated in drafting its reports which include "Cloning Human Beings" (1997), "Research Involving Persons with Mental Disorders that May Affect Decisionmaking Capacity" (1998), "Research Involving Human Biological Materials" (1999), "Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research" (1999), "Ethical and Policy Issues in International Research: Clinical Trials in Developing Countries" (2001), and "Ethical and Policy Issues in Research Involving Human Participants" (2001).

Among her research activities, Professor Backlar was the Principal Investigator on the NIMH funded study "Impact of advance directives for mental health treatment," and co-investigator on a multi-site SAMHSA funded study, "Evaluation of managed care for persons with severe mental disorders."