His publications include more than 130 articles, reviews and editorials in philosophical journals, medical journals, public policy journals, and newspapers. He is a co-author of  (Random House, 1964, 1969, 1979), an editor of several anthologies, and author of  (Oxford, 1985) and  (Oxford, 1991; Temple 1993).

Since 1988 he has served, by gubernatorial appointment, on the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law. He was Dearing-Daly Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at the SUNY Upstate Medical University from 2001-2004. He is Founding Director of the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse, and for 2004-05 was Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Bioethicist in Residence at Yale. In 2007 he was appointed by New York’s governor to the new Empire State Stem Cell Board, which oversees a $600 million commitment to stem cell research in New York State.