Cynthia B. Cohen

10/07/1935 - 08/02/2024

Passed away peacefully in her sleep on August 2, 2024, in Concord, NH, with family members present. Dr. Cohen, 88, was a bioethicist whose work focused on ethical issues that arise at the end of life, as well as those raised by new reproductive technologies, stem cell research, and cloning. She was also considered an authority on the relationship between religion and bioethics.

Dr. Cohen was a Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University for over ten years. Prior to that she was Executive Director of the National Advisory Board on Ethics in Reproduction in Washington, DC; Associate for Ethical Studies at The Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank in Garrison, NY; and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Denver. She authored and co-authored approximately 10 books and over 100 articles.

Dr. Cohen was also a member of the Canadian Stem Cell Oversight Committee and consultant to numerous bioethical groups, including the President's Council on Bioethics, several data safety monitoring boards and research review boards at the National Institutes of Health, and the Committee on Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. She also served on several national committees of the Episcopal Church concerned with bioethical issues, and chaired the Committee on Medical Ethics of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Dr. Cohen was a graduate of the High School of Music and Art in New York City and Barnard College. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She was awarded an honorary doctor of theology degree by Virginia Theological Seminary in 2005.

She was married to Peter J. Cohen, M.D., J.D., chair of the anesthesiology departments at the University of Colorado and the University of Michigan, who predeceased her in 2010. She is survived by her children, Holly Cohen Cooper of Concord, NH, and her husband Ward Cooper, Elizabeth Cohen of Tenants Harbor, ME, and her partner John Bielenberg, and Christopher Cohen of Malvern, PA, and his wife Linda Rothrock; her grandchildren, Alec Cooper Woods and his wife Rachel Woods, Jonathan Cohen, Mateo Davis and his fiancée Kelly Burk, Daniel Cohen, Connor Davis, and Sarah Cohen; and her great-grandchild, Peter Woods.

The family has not yet made plans for a memorial service. Contributions may be made in Dr. Cynthia B. Cohen's memory to the Physicians' Health Committee of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia's Healthy Physician Foundation, https://www.msdc.org/healthyphysicians, or the PBS Foundation, https://foundation.pbs.org/.