Doug MacKay

Doug MacKay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy and Core Faculty in the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at the University of North Carolina. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto and previously completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His research focuses on the intersection of justice and public policy, particularly addressing ethical dimensions of economic inequality, immigration policies, biomedical research governance, and health/welfare policy design.

MacKay’s educational background includes a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto, complemented by postdoctoral training in bioethics. His work emphasizes ethical frameworks for policy decisions, including debates over genome editing governance, soda taxation equity, and fair subject selection in clinical trials. He has contributed to discussions on policy experiments, organ donation ethics, and the moral implications of immigration health requirements.

Key themes in his research include balancing fairness and effectiveness in public health interventions, rethinking distributive justice in global contexts, and ensuring ethical standards in both biomedical and social science research. His recent work explores the ethical use of wastewater surveillance data and the governance of preventive genome editing technologies.

MacKay’s publications span topics from vaccine trial ethics during pandemics to the philosophical foundations of taxation systems. His writing bridges moral philosophy with practical policy design, advocating for frameworks that prioritize equity and transparency.