Adrienne Asch is the Henry R. Luce Professor in Biology, Ethics, and the Politics of Human Reproduction at Wellesley College. She received a B.A. in philosophy from Swarthmore College; an M.S. in social work, community organization, and planning from Columbia University School of Social Work; and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Columbia University. Her work focuses on the ethical, political, psychological, and social implications of human reproduction and the family. At Wellesley she has created a unique program rarely available to undergraduates, teaching such courses as: Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Abortion; Ethical and Social Issues in Genetics; Women and Motherhood; Ethical and Policy Issues in Reproduction; and Literature and Medicine. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters, including: After Baby M: The Legal, Ethical, and Social Dimensions of Surrogacy, with A.R. Schiff (The New Jersey Commission on Legal and Ethical Problems in the Delivery of Health Care, 1992); “Feminism, Bioethics, and Genetics” with G. Geller (in S.M. Wolf, Feminism and Bioethics: Beyond Reproduction, 1996); and "Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion: A Challenge to Practice and Policy" (American Journal of Public Health, 1999). She is editor with Erik Parens of Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights, (Georgetown University Press, 2000) and is completing a book on assisted reproduction for Johns Hopkins University Press.

In addition to her teaching and research, Dr. Asch brings considerable experience with local, state, and national policy-making groups: from 1987–1990 as an Associate in Social Science and Policy with the New Jersey Bioethics Commission; in 1993 as a member of the Bioethics Working Group of the Clinton Task Force on Health Care Reform; and in 1995 as a member of the National Commission on Childhood Disability. She is a past board member of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the Society for Disability Studies. Currently, she serves on the boards the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, and the Council for Responsible Genetics.

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Profile last updated: 8/04