NEW YORK TIMESMay 2025
There Are Ways to Die With Dignity, But Not Like This
An exploration of dignity, suffering, and end-of-life care that argues for compassionate accompaniment and human connection over physician-assisted death.
Read Article →Physician · Ethicist · Author
A healthier,
more hopeful
future.
Lydia Dugdale, MD, MAR, is a physician and ethicist who explores medicine, mortality, and the moral life—drawing on science, philosophy, and the wisdom of the ages to ask what it means to live, die, and hope well.
Featured in
The Wall Street JournalThe New York TimesNPRThe Free Press
Photo by Julia Hembree Smith
About
Medicine, meaning,
and the examined life.
Dr Dugdale is the Silberberg Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University in New York City. She’s also Co-Director of Clinical Ethics at NewYork-Presbyterian Milstein Hospital, where she cares for patients, teaches, crafts health policy, and serves as an ethics consultant.
Lydia attended medical school at the University of Chicago and completed her Internal Medicine residency training at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She obtained her master’s degree in ethics at Yale Divinity School and competed a certificate in executive education at Yale School of Management.
Prior to joining the faculty of Columbia University in 2019, she was on faculty at Yale School of Medicine where she worked in a high-volume primary care practice and served as both Associate Director of the Program for Biomedical Ethics and founding Co-Director of the Program for Medicine, Spirituality, and Religion.
Dr Dugdale speaks and publishes widely, with works appearing in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Free Press, as well as numerous academic journals. She is a nationally recognized voice on issues of bioethics, the good life, and aging and death.
Position
Silberberg Professor of Medicine
Columbia University
Director, Center for Clinical Medical Ethics
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Co-Director of Clinical Ethics
NewYork-Presbyterian Milstein Hospital
Training
MD · University of Chicago
Medical School
Internal Medicine Residency
Yale-New Haven Hospital
MAR · Yale Divinity School
Ethics
Executive Education Certificate
Yale School of Management
Public Voice
Selected Writing
FREE PRESSApril 2026
How ‘City on a Hill’ Became ‘America First’
A reflection on how America’s founding ideals of mercy, humility, and moral responsibility have gradually given way to a more self-interested vision of national identity.
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WALL STREET JOURNALNovember 2025
Old Age Will Be Different in the Robotic Age
An exploration of how robotics and artificial intelligence may reshape aging and elder care, while arguing that technology can never replace human presence, dignity, and compassion.
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WALL STREET JOURNALFebruary 2022
The Doctor Will See You Now—Wait, Not You
An examination of medical ethics during the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing that physicians have a duty to care for all patients with compassion rather than moral judgment.
Read Article →Books
Major Works
The Lost Art of Dying
Reviving Forgotten Wisdom
Drawing on centuries of ars moriendi tradition — the medieval art of dying well — Dr Dugdale argues that premodern wisdom about death can restore meaning and dignity to the end of life. A physician's meditation that is part history, part memoir, and wholly humane.
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Dying in the Twenty-First Century
Toward a New Ethical Framework for the Art of Dying Well
An interdisciplinary collection of essays examining the moral, medical, and spiritual dimensions of dying in contemporary Western society.
Order the Book →Praise & Reviews
Want a better life? Then think about your death, starting with Lydia Dugdale's The Lost Art of Dying. Dugdale shows that death should be courageously confronted. In so doing, we not only conquer our fear, but also understand the reason for our lives.
Arthur C. BrooksNew York Times bestselling author and professor at the Harvard Kennedy School
Dugdale proves that nothing is more relevant to our present cultural moment than the wisdom of the past. Based on painstaking scholarship but written in an accessible style, the book will not only help people facing their own death or the death of a loved one, but also professionals
Timothy KellerNew York Times bestselling author of The Reason for God
In this profound and compassionate book about death and its nearness, Dugdale demystifies one of the essential mysteries of our time.
Siddhartha MukherjeePulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene
Speaking & Media
Bringing Clarity to
Complex Conversations
Lydia speaks to medical schools, healthcare institutions, faith communities, and public audiences on end-of-life care, the ethics of medicine, and the meaning of a life well-lived. She is available for lectures, panels, podcasts, and media engagements.
Frequent Topics
End-of-Life CareMedical EthicsThe Art of DyingFaith & HealthPhysician FormationMortality & MeaningHealing the Nation
For the good of the country
Heal the Nation
501(c)(3) · Founded 2025
Founded by Dr Dugdale to advance a unifying vision for America rooted in human flourishing, Heal the Nation convenes leaders and thinkers across divides to build practical, sustainable solutions — spanning education, medicine, affordability, and beyond.
Visit Heal the Nation →