Ben A. Rich  

Ben A. Rich, J.D., Ph.D.
Professor and School of Medicine
Alumni Association Endowed Chair of Bioethics
Email: barich@ucdavis.edu
(916) 734-6135

Professor Rich received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1973. He did postgraduate work as a Research Associate in Environmental Law at the University of Illinois College of Law (1973-4) and served as the Antitrust Coordinator for the National Association of Attorneys General (1974-6) before joining a Raleigh, N.C. law firm as a litigation specialist (1976-80). He served as Deputy Commissioner of the North Carolina Industrial Commission from 1980-82, when began his involvement in health care law as legal counsel to the University of North Carolina Hospitals and Clinics (1982-84) and as Senior Resident Counsel at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (1984-86). From 1986-1989 he served as University Counsel (General Counsel) for the University of Colorado system.

Following a year as Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law (1990-91), he embarked on a new career in academic bioethics, he pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1992-1995) while continuing to teach courses in health law and bioethics at the schools of law and medicine of University of Colorado. In 1995 he became Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the Program in Health Care Ethics, Humanities, and Law at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He came to UC Davis in 2000 as Associate Professor of Bioethics, became Professor of Bioethics in 2006, and the Endowed Chair of Bioethics in 2007. He has faculty appointments in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, as well as in the School of Law.

Dr. Rich has published extensively in medical, legal, and bioethics journals and texts on topics ranging from informed consent and advance directives to pain management and end-of-life care. He is on the editorial boards of The American Pain Society Bulletin, The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, The Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy, and Pain Medicine. He serves as Chair of the Ethics Committee of the American Pain Society, and is a member of the Council of Ethics of the American College of Legal Medicine and the Ethics Committee of the American College of Legal Medicine.