Polo Camacho, PhD
As a Bioethicist at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), I leverage my expertise in clinical and biomedical ethics to identify and address complex ethical challenges across the cancer care continuum. I collaborate closely with ASCO volunteers and staff, providing crucial support for ethics-related projects, programming, and compliance efforts across the organization. My recent work includes co-authoring ethical guidance on chemotherapy drug shortages (2023) and an article on the ethics of ctDNA (2024), both developed with oncologists and cancer professionals.
Before ASCO, I specialized in end-of-life ethics, serious illness communication, and advance care planning. My work involved supporting ethics committees in long-term care through education, case review, and policy development. I also co-designed bioethics educational programs for healthcare systems, and co-led a bi-state initiative in Kansas and Missouri that translated patient preferences into actionable medical orders, resulting in the TPOPP/POLST clinical guidance document.
Before ASCO, I specialized in end-of-life ethics, serious illness communication, and advance care planning. My work involved supporting ethics committees in long-term care through education, case review, and policy development. I also co-designed bioethics educational programs for healthcare systems, and co-led a bi-state initiative in Kansas and Missouri that translated patient preferences into actionable medical orders, resulting in the TPOPP/POLST clinical guidance document.
I earned my Ph.D. in 2021 under Dr. Armin Schulz, with a dissertation that reappraised the bioethical, epistemological, and practical implications of the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology. Key chapters from this work have been published in leading journals including Philosophy, Theory and Practice in Biology, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, and Biosemiotics. Beyond bioethics, my research interests encompass decolonial philosophy of medicine and science, environmental ethics, and philosophy of molecular biology. For an up-to-date list of my publications, my CV is available upon request.
I’m a proud, first-generation Mexican American (he/they) from El Paso, Texas. In my spare time, I enjoy print-making, making music, learning about Mexian/Mexican American history, and reading comic strips from the early twentieth century. Click on the brick above to learn more about ‘Krazy Kat’, a comic strip by the African American cartoonist George Herriman.
Feel free to contact me through LinkedIn.