Leigh Turner is an Associate Professor in the Center for Bioethics, School of Public Health, and College of Pharmacy. Prior to his arrival at the University of Minnesota in 2008 Turner was an Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Biomedical Ethics Unit and Department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University. From 1998-2000 Turner was an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics and clinical ethicist at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care and Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre. From 1996-1997 Turner was Research Associate at The Hastings Center. In 1996 Turner received his PhD from the School of Religion & Social Ethics at the University of Southern California. His doctoral dissertation explored ethical issues and health policy challenges in multicultural societies.
Turner has held visiting appointments at several institutions. In 2006-2007 Turner was Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the Comparative Program on Health and Society, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. From 2003 to 2004 Turner was a Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. In 1999 Turner was Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.
With co-editors Jill Hodges and Ann Marie Kimball, Turner has an edited volume scheduled for publication in 2012. Published by Praeger, the book is entitled, Medical Tourism: Risks and Controversies in the Global Market for Health Services. With Raymond De Vries, Kristina Orfali, and Charles Bosk, Turner edited The View from Here: Bioethics and the Social Sciences (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007). Turner’s articles have appeared in such publications as BioSocieties, British Medical Journal, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Globalization and Health, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and Sociology of Health & Illness. He has also contributed to the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Ottawa Citizen.
Turner’s current research examines ethical, social, public health, and health policy issues related to transnational medical travel and the emergence of a global marketplace in health services. His research program includes ethical and social analysis of transborder medical travel, health equity effects of trade in health services, organ trafficking in the Philippines, "stem cell tourism", and the establishment of bioeconomies in India and Singapore.
BooksHodges J, Turner L, Kimball A. (eds.) 2012. Medical Tourism: Risks and Controversies in the Global Market for Health Services. Praeger. (Forthcoming.)
De Vries R, Turner L, Orfali K, Bosk C. (eds.) 2007. The View from Here: Bioethics and the Social Sciences. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Selected Articles
Transnational Medical Travel and Globalization of Health Services
Turner, L. 2011. “Canadian Medical Tourism Companies That Have Exited the Marketplace: Content Analysis of Websites Used to Market Transnational Medical Travel.” Globalization and Health 7:40: 16.
Crooks, V., Turner, L., Snyder, J., Johnston, R., Kingsbury, P. 2011. “Promoting Medical Tourism to India: Messages, Images and the Marketing of International Patient Travel.” Social Science and Medicine 72: 726-732.
Turner, L. 2011.“Quality in health care and globalization of health services: accreditation and regulatory oversight of medical tourism companies.” International Journal for Quality in Health Care 23: 1-7.
Runnels, V., Turner, L. 2011. “Bioethics and Transnational Medical Travel: India, ‘Medical Tourism’, and the Globalization of Health Care.” Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 1: 42-44.
Snyder, J., Crooks, V., Turner, L. 2010. “Issues and Challenges in Research on the Ethics of Medical Tourism: Reflections from a Conference.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Available online with print version to follow.
Turner, L. 2010. “The Coming Backlash Against ‘Medical Tourism’”. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 126, 6: 326-327.
Turner, L. 2010. “’Medical tourism’ and the global marketplace in health services: U.S. patients, international hospitals, and the search for affordable health care.” International Journal of Health Services 40: 443-467.
Turner, L. 2009. “Commercial Organ Transplantation in the Philippines.” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 18: 192-196.
Turner, L. 2009. “Dental tourism: cross-border travel for dental care.” Journal of the Canadian Dental Association 75, 2: 123-125.
Turner, L. 2008. “’Medical tourism’ initiatives should exclude commercial organ transplantation.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 101 (8): 391-394.
Turner, L. 2008. “Cross-border dental care: ‘dental tourism’ and patient mobility.” British Dental Journal 204: 553-554.
Turner, L. 2008. Let’s wave goodbye to “transplant tourism”. British Medical Journal 336: 1377.
Turner, L. 2007. “Medical tourism: Family medicine and international health-related travel.” Canadian Family Physician 53: 1639-1641.
Turner, L. 2007. “From Durham to Delhi: ‘Medical Tourism’ and the Global Economy.” In, Comparative Program on Health and Society Lupina Foundation Working Papers Series 2006-2007. Ed., Bianca Seaton. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Turner, L. 2007. “’First World Health Care at Third World Prices’: Globalization, Bioethics, and Medical Tourism. BioSocieties 2: 303-325.
Turner, L. 2007. “Canadian Medicare and the Global Health Care Bazaar”. Policy Options September: 73-77.
Bioethics & Social Studies of Medicine
Turner, L. 2009. “Anthropological and Sociological Critiques of Bioethics.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 6: 83-98.
Turner, L. 2009. “Bioethics and Social Studies of Medicine: Overlapping Concerns.” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 18: 36-42.
De Vries, R., Turner, L., Orfali, K., Bosk, C. 2007. “Social Science and bioethics: morality from the ground up.” Clinical Ethics 2, 1: 33-35.
De Vries, R., Turner, L., Orfali, K., Bosk, C. 2006. “Social science and bioethics: the way forward.” Sociology of Health & Illness 28, 6: 665-677.
Turner, L. 2005. “Bioethics, Social Class, and the Sociological Imagination.” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics.” 14: 374-378.
Bioethics, Culture & Religion
Turner, L. 2009. “Does Bioethics Exist?” Journal of Medical Ethics 35: 778-780.
Turner, L. 2005. “From the Local to the Global: Bioethics and the Concept of Culture.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 30, 3: 305-320.
Turner, L. 2005. “Is cultural sensitivity sometimes insensitive?” Canadian Family Physician 51: 478-480.
Turner, L. 2004. “Bioethics in pluralistic societies.” Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 7: 201-208.
Turner, L. 2003. “Bioethics and Religions: Religious Traditions and Understandings of Morality, Health, and Illness.” Health Care Analysis 11, 3: 181-197.
Turner, L. 2003. “Zones of Consensus and Zones of Conflict: Questioning the ‘Common Morality’ Presumption in Bioethics.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 13, 3: 193-218.
Turner, L. 2002. “Bioethics and end-of-life care in multi-ethnic settings: cultural diversity in Canada and the United States of America.” Mortality 7, 3: 285-301.