2025 AWARD WINNER
April Dworetz, MD, MPH, MA, FAAP
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta | Atlanta, Georgia
Dr. April Dworetz is a Neonatologist at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine.
April Dworetz exemplifies a bioethicist whose achievements have fostered a culture of ethics nationally, in disability ethics, and locally, for her advocacy and educational focus within the healthcare organizations for
which she works.
April Dworetz’s life and career demonstrates an evolution. As a neonatologist, she knows how to do the right thing—and to teach those things to others. Her MPH allows her to assess whether the right thing actually works to achieve the goal. Her bioethics master’s degree has taught her how to assess what the best “right thing” to do. The culmination of these skills and knowledge has resulted in her focus on disability ethics where all her skills come into focus—clinical, teaching, data analysis and ethics. Dr Dworetz’s interest in the plight of the disabled and how we “ought” to approach this diverse (and often discriminated against group) hones much of her current ethics activities.
With recognized regional and national expertise in disability ethics, her work addresses the disconnection between perceptions and biases of healthcare workers and disability studies’ perspectives about disability, including intellectual disability. Her current research includes two recent studies on forgoing life-sustaining treatment in potentially disabled preterm neonates. She has written about options of care for infants with Trisomy 18—and advocated for including parents into the care decisions about very immature preterm infants.
In a nationally recognized New York Times editorial, Dr. Dworetz stated that, “In my world…, the “surrogate” decision makers are young parents of <extremely immature> infants... And they are still completely unprepared. It’s time we broaden the discussion to include them.” Advocating for the potentially disabled baby and for parental participation in the care discussion has been an essential focus of Dr Dworetz’s life work. In fact, this editorial attracted enough attention that she was invited to Princeton by Peter Singer, PhD, the controversial philosopher and bioethicist, to speak on the topic. This forum elevated the regard for her thinking and promoted the prominence of ethics within Georgia and Emory.
Her work nationally resulted in her being appointed to the advisory board of Emory’s Disability Studies Initiative and as a member of the University’s Task Force on Disability Education. Dr. Dworetz co-chaired the Disability Ethics Affinity Committee of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities for seven years. Notably, during her tenure, she grew the group from a handful of interested people to over 50 members. As leader of this group, she organized speakers, solicited and reviewed abstracts for presentation by students, and organized two memorials of major scholars in the disability field.
Locally she work has worked with two hospital ethics committees, the Grady Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee (from which she recently resigned) and the Emory University Hospital Midtown Ethics Committee (which is her main focus of clinical bioethics engagement). As part of these groups, she answers bioethics consults, chairs the education subcommittees, organizes ethics grand rounds, and addresses healthcare related policy development. She chairs the fledgling Georgia AAP Committee on Bioethics. The committee focuses on the ethics of advocacy by implementing legislature advocacy and advocacy education, partnering with Emory’s Urban Health Initiative, and organizing educational webinars for pediatricians throughout Georgia.
April is clearly a thought leader in the field of disability ethics and has attracted attention and awareness of the clinical and ethical issues encountered. She advocates tirelessly for the patient and the parent in these complex ethical dilemmas. Additionally, her work with the state pediatrics Bioethics Committee and Emory’s ethics efforts clearly
demonstrates the promotion of an integrated system of ethics within healthcare through ethical practice, education, and legislative advocacy.