David T. Wasserman

David was born on March 30, 1953, the eldest son of Helen Bernstein Wasserman and Edward Wasserman, in Fairfield, Connecticut. Friends and family variously described him as “brilliant, quirky, hilarious” and “irascible and kind, ornery and curious.”

He graduated Yale University with a bachelor of arts in philosophy in 1975, the University of Michigan Law School in 1978, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a master of arts in social psychology in 1984.

A devoted father and husband, David married Susan Ginsberg in 1992 and had two sons, Jacob and Adam Wasserman. He shared his love of hiking, history, and humor with his many friends and family.

David pursued a career applying questions of ethics and philosophy to issues ranging from genetic testing to disability rights to criminal appeals. He first worked as a staff attorney in the criminal appeals bureau of the New York Legal Aid Society, later authoring a book on the challenges of defending the poor in an overtaxed justice system.

He then worked over two decades at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2007, he co-founded the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University, led by his longtime collaborator, Adrienne Asch, before serving on the faculty of the National Institutes of Health Center for Bioethics, where he pursued bioethics research, organized academic events, and mentored numerous post-baccalaureate and post-doctoral fellows.

David was the author of more than one hundred published articles, chapters, and reviews across philosophy, law, and bioethics. He was a founding figure in the philosophy of disability and contributed extensively to debates on the ethics of reproduction. In 2015, he defended the ethical propriety of reproduction itself in Debating Procreation. David co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Disability and has served on the editorial boards of journals such as Ethics and the Journal of Applied Philosophy. David was named a Fellow of the Hastings Center, a major honor in the field.

David is survived by his wife of 33 years, Susan Ginsberg; his mother, Helen Bernstein Wasserman; his brother, Daniel Wasserman; his children, Jacob Wasserman and Adam Wasserman; his daughters-in-law Sophia Charan and Ankita Sharma; and his grandchildren, Vivian Charan and Micah Charan.

Burial arrangements will be provided by National Funeral Home and Memorial Park at the King David Memorial Gardens. Memorial contributions can be made to Partners in Health (https://www.pih.org/) or the International Rescue Committee (https://www.rescue.org/).