Unpredictable Journey

About the Book

In this memoir Ernlé W.D. Young tells of growing up as a farm-boy in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, South Africa, and making the unpredictable life-journey to Palo Alto, California; from being a printer, pastor, and political activist in South Africa to becoming a full professor at Stanford University; from having had to leave his native land because of his implacable opposition to the Nationalist government’s apartheid policies and he and his family making new lives in their adopted country. It is the story of one trained in ethics primarily concerned about social justice—founding in Bloemfontein a branch of the Progressive Party, committed to building a racially integrated South Africa—having to make the transition to biomedical ethics and the ethical conduct of research, first at Stanford, and then at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View. It is the story of a fifty-eight-year marriage to his beloved wife Margaret, who believed in him and stood by him through thick and thin—of a marriage almost wrecked and then painstakingly salvaged and re-built stronger than ever. It is the story of the achievements and accomplishments of their four children and seven grandchildren.

About the Author

Ernlé W.D. Young is Emeritus Professor of Medicine (Biomedical ethics) at Stanford University, Palo Alto, and Emeritus Chief, Office for the Protection of Research Participants, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Mountain View. He holds undergraduate and honors degrees from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, and earned his PhD at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He is the author, co-author, or editor of four books on biomedical ethics.