Joseph Francis Fletcher (April 10, 1905 – October 28, 1991)[1] was an American professor who founded the theory of situational ethics in the 1960s.
Fletcher was a leading academic proponent of the potential benefits of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, eugenics, and cloning.
He taught Christian Ethics at Episcopal Divinity School (established to train people for ordination in the American Episcopal Church), Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at Harvard Divinity School from 1944 to 1970.
He was the first professor of medical ethics at the University of Virginia and co-founded the Program in Biology and Society there.
He was also a member of the American Eugenics Society and the Association for Voluntary Sterilization.