The Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the Medical College of Wisconsin, established in 1982 as one of the first centers of its kind in the nation, was created to nurture a multidisciplinary approach to the complex challenges facing health care professionals, patients, and policy makers. For over 40 years, we have continued to address this need through bedside ethics consultation in individual patient cases; the graduate education of the next generation of bioethicists; the ethics training of medical students, residents, and fellows; conceptual and empirical research on key bioethics issues; and outreach to civic, health care, and professional organizations.