Alexander Capron, a globally recognized expert in health policy and medical ethics, taught Public Health Law, Torts, and Law and Bioethics at the Law School from 1985 to 2023. He also taught at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and co-founded the Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics, a campus-wide interdisciplinary research and education center. From 2002 to 2006 he served as Director of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights, and Health Law at the World Health Organization in Geneva.

Capron’s publications include Ethical Issues in Governing Biobanks: Global Perspectives (with others, Ashgate, 2008), Law, Science and Medicine 2nd ed. (with others, Foundation Press, 1996), Treatise on Health Care Law (with others, Matthew Bender, 1991), and Genetics, Ethics and Human Values (edited with Z. Bankowski, Geneva: CIOMS, 1991).

Capron received a BA from Swarthmore College and an LLB from Yale University, where he was an officer of the Yale Law Journal. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and served as President of the International Association of Bioethics. Capron is a trustee of The Century Foundation, an officer of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, and an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Sciences) and of the American Law Institute.