Queen Mary, University of London

Professor Richard Ashcroft MA (Cantab) PhD (Cantab) FHEA, FIBiol

Professor of Bioethics

Professor Ashcroft’s main research focus is on the ethical, legal and social aspects of medicine, public health and biomedical research.  He is currently leading or participating in research projects funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council on the regulation of biomedical research, and has conducted funded research in ethical and philosophical aspects of Evidence-Based Medicine, participation in large-scale genetic databases, the use of race/ethnicity concepts in genetic research, and patients’ attitudes to the use of their personal information in medical research.  Currently he is developing research on the relationship between human rights and bioethics, and on ethics in international health.

Professor Ashcroft wins share of a £750k Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Biomedical Ethics
Read about the Centre for the Study of Incentives in Health
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He trained in History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University, completing a PhD thesis on ethics in scientific research, and subsequently was a Research Fellow in Philosophy at Liverpool University, Lecturer in Ethics in Medicine at Bristol University, and Lecturer (eventually Reader and Head of the Ethics Unit) at Imperial College London.  Before joining the School of Law, he was Professor of Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 2005 he held an Australian Bicentennial Fellowship, visiting the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne.  He is a visiting faculty member of the IRENSA research ethics course, University of Cape Town.

He is a Deputy Editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics, and serves on the editorial boards of a number of other journals, including Bioethics, Developing World Bioethics, Biosocieties, Health Care Analysis and Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.  He is a member of the Ethics and Policy Advisory Committee of the Medical Research Council and the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee. 

Key publications

  • Ashcroft RE, Dawson AJ, Draper HJA, McMillan J (eds.) Principles of Health Care Ethics (2nd edition), John Wiley, 2007
  • Ashcroft RE, Parker MJ, Verkerk M, Widdershoven G, Lucassen AM (eds.) Case Analysis in Clinical Ethics, Cambridge University Press, 2005
  • Ashcroft RE Access to essential medicines: A Hobbesian social contract approach.  Developing World Bioethics 2005; 5(2): 121-141
  • Ashcroft RE. Making sense of dignity. Journal of Medical Ethics 2005; 31: 697-682
  • Ashcroft RE. From public interest to political justice. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. 2004; 13: 20-27
  • Ashcroft RE. The Ethics and Governance of Medical Research: What has regulation to do with morality? New Review of Bioethics 2003; 1: 41-58
  • Schüklenk U, A shcroft RE  Affordable access to essential medicines in developing countries: Conflict between ethical and economic imperatives. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 2002; 27: 179-195

 

 

Postgraduate supervision

Prof. Ashcroft welcomes proposals for postgraduate research in any area of medical ethics and bioethics, especially in ethical aspects of public health or biomedical research.