Mary Ann Gardell Cutter, PhD

Mary Ann G. Cutter is currently Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. She joined the department in 1988 and holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Georgetown University through the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Program. 

She is the author of numerous publications in biomedical ethics, including An Ethics of Clinical Uncertainty: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic (Routledge, 2024), Death: A Reader (Notre Dame, 2019), and Thinking through Breast Cancer: A Philosophical Exploration of Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survival (Oxford, 2018). In 1997, Professor Cutter received a CU system-wide Bank One Community Service Award for her work in developing genetic-protection legislation for the State of Colorado. 

In Spring 2017, she taught courses on death and dying as well as biomedical ethics for Semester at Sea and, with her students, met with health care providers in ten countries in Asia and Africa. She returned to teach for SAS in Spring 2022 in Europe to focus on death and dying practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In 2018, Professor Cutter received the recognition of being a CU system-wide President’s Teaching Scholar and, in March 2020, an awardee of the CU system-wide Elizabeth D. Gee Memorial honor for her work on women’s health. She currently serves on the Colorado State-Wide Long-Term Care Ethics Committee and is set to teach again for Semester at Sea in Fall 2026. Her current two scholarly projects include Practical Ethics: Skills for Ethical Decision-Making and Defining and Defying Death.

Philosophy of Medicine (Concepts of Disease), Biomedical Ethics (Death and Dying, Breast Cancer), Global Concepts of Death, Ethical Decision-Making

• Biomedical Ethics (PHIL 3130)
• Death and Dying (PHIL 3160)
• Practical Ethics (PHIL 3180)
• Values, Relativism, and Skepticism (PHIL 3190)

CV - Mary Ann Cutter

Mary Ann Cutter featured in CU Connections Spotlight: Five Questions