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Member Information
Jon F. Merz, PhD
Assistant Professor of Bioethics, Department of Medical Ethics
Fellow, Center for Bioethics
Associate Scholar, Clinical Epidemiology
Unit of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Office Phone: 215-573-8107
Office Fax: 215-573-3036
Email: merz@mail.med.upenn.edu
Website(s):
Education: BS 1978, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; MBA 1983, University of North Florida;
JD 1987, Duquesne University School of Law; PhD 1991, Carnegie Mellon University
Keywords: bioethics; law; research ethics; public policy
Research and/or Clinical Interests:
Dr. Merz's primary relevant research interests relate to research ethics.
Summary:
Dr. Merz's current research involves study of informed consent in research, study of institutional review board functioning, examination of justice issues and the inclusion of women in clinical trials, research on genetic patents and other sources of conflicts of interest in research, and other topics.
Dr. Merz teaches Research Ethics in the Masters of Bioethics program, bioethics in the Medical School , and lectures in core classes on genetics and obstetrics. He has also given lectures to fellows in the Patient Oriented Research program and to various classes in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Dr. Merz served in the past on a DNA Banking committee, the Penn Committee on Studies Involving Human Beings (IRB), the Cancer Center 's Clinical Trials Review and Monitoring Committee, and the Penn IRB Review Committee (2003). Outside of Penn, he is a member of the IRB for the Coriell Institute for Medical Research at UMDNJ, the NHLBI Biological Specimen Repository Utilization Committee, the Research Ethics and Monitoring Panel of the NCI-funded Cancer Family Registry for Breast Cancer Studies Consortium, and the Bioethics Working Group for the Cancer Genetics Network.
Representative Publications:
Merz, J.F., Magnus, D., Cho, M.K., Caplan, A.L. Protecting subjects' interests in genetics research. Am. J. Human Genet., 70:965-971, 2002.
Nelson, R.M., Merz, J.F. Voluntariness of consent for research: an empirical and conceptual review. Med. Care, 40 (9 Suppl.): V69-80, 2002.
Katz, D., Caplan, A.L., Merz, J.F. All gifts large and small: toward an understanding of the ethics of pharmaceutical industry gift giving. Am. J. Bioethics, 3(3):39-46, 2003.
Merz, J.F., McGee, G.E., Sankar, P. "Iceland Inc."?: on the ethics of commercial population genomics. Soc. Sci. Med., in press, 2003.
Merz, J.F. On the intersection of privacy, consent, commerce and genetics research. In: B.M. Knoppers, ed., Populations and Genetics: Legal Socio-Ethical Perspectives. New York : Kluwer Legal Int'l, forthcoming, 2003.
Merz JF, Cho MK, Sankar P. Familial disclosure in defiance of nonconsent. Am J Human Genet 1998; 63:898-899.
Merz JF, Sankar P, Yoo SS. Hospital consent for disclosure of medical records. J Law Med Ethics 1998; 26:241-248.
Moreno J, Caplan AL, Wolpe PR, et al. Updating protections for human subjects involved in research. JAMA 1998; 280:1951-1958.
Merz JF. Disease gene patents: overcoming unethical constraints on clinical laboratory medicine. Clin Chemistry 1999; 45:324-330.
Merz JF, Leonard DGB, Miller ER. IRB review and consent in human tissue research. Science 1999; 283:1647-1648.
