Staff

M. Margaret McDonnell, RSCJ
Founder/Director, Center for Ethics and Advocacy in Healthcare

Sister Peggy McDonnell, a Religious of the Sacred Heart since 1961 and currently Director of the Center for Ethics and Advocacy (The Center) in Chicago, has had a life-long work in health care. Her current work is non denominational. People of all faiths are welcome.

A graduate of the College of Mount Saint Vincent and having done her clinical work at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York, her professional life led to nurse practitioning in community health, where she served in low-income neighborhoods. Subsequently she received a Masters in Divinity and a Th. M in Theology, her major focus being healthcare ethics, these from Harvard Divinity School. In 1983 she came to the Midwest, serving as Director of Ethics for a large multi - hospital system. In that capacity, she oversaw ethics programs for healthcare facilities located coast-to-coast. She was also director of Primary Care, and for a short while Director of Pastoral Care. She recently received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Francis University; Loretto, Pennsylvania for her groundbreaking work in Community based Applied Ethics.

Since 1989, her efforts as clinical ethicist have been through The Center. The Center is unique in that it is both community initiated and community based; it became tax-exempt and not-for-profit in 1995. The underlying educational philosophy is that of "popular education" - education directed to the needs of specific groups. The Center is also a Non Governmental Organization (NGO). It has had a thriving internship program in Applied Ethics, which has brought in interns, high school seniors through graduate school, for the past fourteen years. (See www.healthcare-ethics.org) She is often in an advisory position for College students envisioning their professional future in a healthcare system far different from the one we presently have. How can they position themselves professionally given America's current healthcare system?

Peggy has a particular affinity for those who have lost their voice in the maze of our systematized health care system, for those who may not know where to turn with their questions. Her gift is in offering one-on-one help to those trying to make decisions regarding surgery, treatment options and the like, especially when one is fearful and in fragile health. She goes to homes, hospitals, nursing homes. The work takes place on the street, in shops. She partners with healthcare institutions in transitioning a person from hospitals to home. She has worked with many religious congregations. The effort is "molded" to people as they are - in a very tough period in their lives. Her methodology is based on nursing models. (Read "Message from the Founder" from the link on the opening page of this web site.)

Her work is dedicated to clarifying and integrating the clinical, ethical, spiritual and developmental aspects of one's personal growth when faced with a major life event involving serious or critical illness. Her goal is to help people come to full personhood, particularly when they are feeling vulnerable or confused. As part of the integrative process she embraces, patients become part of their team of physicians. In this way they can speak as the informed consumers they have become. At the same time they realize that they are connecting with a Power greater and deeper than themselves.

Peggy's work incorporates the human aspect of ethics and addresses such questions as: How can we live and die as whole human beings? How can suffering and death be integrated into the full spectrum of human life? How do love and justice intersect in a world of scarcity? She believes that the work of ethics and advocacy in healthcare can begin to answer such questions and has the potential for helping everyone achieve full personhood. She has been told that in academic circles her methodology most typifies the field of Human Development.