upstate medical university center for bioethics and humanities

Kathy Faber-Langendoen

Kathy Faber-Langendoen, MD Kathy Faber-Langendoen, M.D., is Founder and Chair of the Center. She holds the Medical Alumni Endowed Professorship in Bioethics and is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology-Oncology. She received her medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis and completed a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Minnesota with a research focus in bioethics. Before coming to Upstate in 1998, she was a faculty member at the University of Minnesota.

At Upstate, Dr. Faber-Langendoen maintains an oncology practice and is an attending physician at University Hospital. She teaches a research ethics course for basic science graduate students and a course on bioethics and the law jointly offered by Upstate and Syracuse University Law School. She also lectures in a variety of other venues at the university and in the community.

Dr. Faber-Langendoen directs University Hospital's Ethics Consultation Service and serves on the hospital's Ethics Committee. She is Advisory Editor of the Center's Bioethics in Brief newsletter and of The Healing Muse, Upstate’s journal of literary and visual arts.

Outside Upstate, Dr. Faber-Langendoen sits on the Ethics Committee of the New York chapter of the American College of Physicians and the Onondaga County Community Pandemic Preparedness Committee. She sits on the Steering Committee of the Family Decisions Coalition, a group advocating for reform of state rules on decision-making for incapacitated patients.

Her current research program focuses on the moral development of medical trainees and the ethics of discussing spirituality in the physician-patient encounter. Dr. Faber-Langendoen's writings appear in New England Journal of Medicine, Academic Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and American Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Faber-Langendoen may be reached at 315.464.8464 or at faberlak@upstate.edu.

Selected Publications

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McCrary SV, Swanson JW, Coulehan J, Faber-Langendoen K, Olick RS, Belling C. Physicians’ legal defensiveness in end-of-life treatment decisions: comparing attitudes and knowledge in states with different laws. J Clin Ethics. 2006 Spring;17(1):15-26.

Caldicott CV, Faber-Langendoen K. Deception, discrimination, and fear of reprisal: lessons in ethics from third-year medical students. Acad Med. 2005 Sep;80(9):866-73.

Lo B, Ruston D, Kates LW, Arnold RM, Cohen CB, Faber-Langendoen K, Pantilat SZ, Puchalski CM, Quill TR, Rabow MW, Schreiber S, Sulmasy DP, Tulsky JA, Working Group on Religious and Spiritual Issues at the End of Life. Discussing religious and spiritual issues at the end of life: a practical guide for physicians. JAMA. 2002 Feb 13;287(6):749-54.

Bartels DM, Faber-Langendoen K. Caring in crisis: Family perspectives on ventilator withdrawal at the end-of-life. Families, Systems & Health. 2001 June 13;19(2):169-76.

Faber-Langendoen K, Lanken PN. Dying patients in the intensive care unit: forgoing treatment, maintaining care. Ann Intern Med. 2000 Dec 5;133(11):886-93.

Faber-Langendoen K, Karlawish JH. Should assisted suicide be only physician assisted? Ann Intern Med. 2000 Mar 21;132(6):482-7.

Faber-Langendoen K. Death by request: assisted suicide and the oncologist. Cancer. 1998 Jan 1;82(1):35-41.

Brody H, Campbell ML, Faber-Langendoen K, Ogle KS. Withdrawing intensive life-sustaining treatment -- recommendations for compassionate clinical management. N Engl J Med. 1997 Feb 27;336(9):652-7.

Faber-Langendoen K. A multi-institutional study of care given to patients dying in hospitals. Ethical and practice implications. Arch Intern Med. 1996 Oct 14;156(18):2130-6.

Faber-Langendoen K. The clinical management of dying patients receiving mechanical ventilation. A survey of physician practice. Chest. 1994 Sep;106(3):880-8.

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