The founder of a research center that wrestled with provocative issues like human behavior, death and dying, personal autonomy and genetics, died on December 30th. The man was 97 years old.
His daughter said that he died.
The Hastings Center was founded in 1969 by Dr. Gaylin and Daniel Callahan, who were psychiatrists. Both Dr. Gaylin and Mr. Callahan were Roman Catholic and both were psychiatrists.
Different roles were played by them. Mr. Callahan was the center's operational executive, while Dr. Gaylin held the title of president for a long time.
Mr. Callahan wrote about Dr. Gaylin in 1994 in The Hastings Center.
The center explored issues like physician-assisted suicide, cloning and the financing of research on human embryonic stem cells. He was the center's sounding board.
Alexander Capron, a bioethicist who was one of the center's founding fellows, said that he had a playful mind. A young research associate would have a conversation with him and he would give him a lot of contrarian ideas to think of. He made us think through that process.
According to Ruth Macklin, Dr. Gaylin's contribution was less to the articles we wrote than to our meetings and conferences, where he was a master of oral, colorful language. She said that he was a fast thinker who in his speech often got ahead of himself.
He looked at ethics of behavior control through brain surgery, electrical stimulation and drugs. In 2009, Dr. Gaylin wrote in the center's journal, "We attempt to control climate, populations, disease, unemployment and crime, all to general approval, but research that is seen as changing or controlling 'the nature of our species' or our behavior."
He said that they glory in their identification with the scientist. We are different from the common animal host due to the scientific pursuit. The researcher and the research animal are identified with behavior control.
He was born in Cleveland. His father and mother were both homemakers.
He received a bachelor's degree in English from Harvard in 1947 and a medical degree from Western Reserve University in 1951.
He earned a certificate in Psychoanalytic Training and Research from the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research in the mid-sixties.
The two men met in Hastings-on- Hudson. Mr. Callahan said that Will was a great dinner partner and argued well with him.
Mr. Callahan had an idea for a center for bioethics. They founded the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences.
Thomas Murray was a research associate at the center in the 1980's and became its president in 1999. If you made a mistake, he wouldn't hesitate to tell you. He taught me a lot.
Dr. Murray, Dr. Macklin and Dr. Gaylin edited and contributed to a book about ethics and drug use. Dr. Gaylin wrote that despite the promise of mood-altering drugs to understand mental illness, addiction and other health problems, they aroused as much pain as they did satisfaction.
He referred to it as part of the 'Frankenstein Factor'. Research that changes or controls the nature of our species will most likely be received with more fear than other research that may be riskier for the individual and more dangerous to the species.
The book "Feeling Good and Doing Better" was written by Dr. Gaylin and was mostly on his own.
The anthropologist Melvin Konner wrote a review of the book "Hatred: The Psychological Descent Into Violence" in The New York Times.
The killing of Bonnie Garland by her former boyfriend Richard Herrin was examined by Dr. Gaylin in "The Killing of Bonnie Garland: A Question of Justice". Mr. Herrin did not plead guilty by reason of mental disease. He was found guilty of killing someone.
In his review of that book in The Los Angeles Times, David Johnston wrote that he examined the ever broadening interpretations of the insanity defense and how our perception of Freudian thinking befuddles and confuses our criminal justice system.
Dr. Gaylin, who lived in Hastings-on- Hudson, is survived by his siblings, as well as his daughter, Ellen Smith. He met Betty Gaylin when he was in junior high school.
The rights of the dying, human research and behavior control were explored in the series "Hard Choices" hosted by Dr. Gaylin. The award was given for excellence in television journalism.
Dr. Gaylin said these are not medical problems. Values and moral problems are the same thing. The mother or the senator should get the machine.
The center is not a depressing place because moral problems are never solved. You are at the forefront of social change.
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