Author Details Page

Lord David Alliance Professor of Bioethics
FMedSci., B.A., D.Phil

John Harris was educated at the University of Kent and at Balliol College , Oxford and is married and has a nineteen year-old son.

On March 30th 2004 John Harris was appointed as the new joint Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Medical Ethics the highest impact journal in medical and applied ethics. John Harris was elected a Fellow of the United Kingdom Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2001, the first philosopher to have been elected to Fellowship of this new National Academy which was established to serve “the medical sciences in the same way as the Royal Society serves the natural sciences (and) the British Academy serves the humanities”. He has been a member of The United Kingdom Human Genetics Commission since its foundation in 1999 and formerly served on the United Kingdom Government Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing from its foundation in 1996 until its closure. He is also a member of the Ethics Committee of the British Medical Association. He was one of the Founder Directors of the International Association of Bioethics and is a founder member of the Board of the Journal Bioethics and Associate Editor (Genetics) of the Journal of Medical Ethics , and a member of the Editorial Board of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics and many other journals.

John Harris is the author or editor of fifteen books and over two hundred papers. He has published in most of the leading philosophical journals in his field including, The Journal of Medical Ethics , Bioethics , The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , The Hastings Centre Report and Philosophy & Public Affairs . He has also published in many of the leading science journals including Nature , Nature Reviews Genetics , Science, Annals of the New York Academy of Science and The British Medical Journal . He currently holds research grants from the European Commission valued at around 1.5 million Euros.

John Harris is Research Director in a new research centre, the Institute of Science, Ethics and Innovation, which will be based in the School of Law. Sir John Solston will chair the institute which will focus on the ethical questions raised by science and technology in the 21st century (more information).

• Research Director University of Manchester Institute of Science, Ethics and Innovation. 2007
• Founder Director of the International Association for Bioethics , Director 1990-1997. Re-elected 1999
• Founder member of Editorial Board for Bioethics (1987)
• Founder member of the Editorial Board for Bioetica: Revista Interdisciplinare. (1992)
• Director of the Institute of Medicine , Law and Bioethics of the Universities of Manchester and Liverpool . 1995
• Appointed Chairman of the Age Concern sponsored working party on Ageing and Values. 1996-1999
• Appointed Editor-in -Chief The Journal of Medical Ethics 2004
• Re-appointed Member of the Ethics Committee The British Medical Association 2004
• Gave Evidence to The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee inquiry into “Human Reproductive Technologies and the Law”. My work cited in their Fifth Report 2004-5
• Gave Evidence to The House of Lords Select Committee on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill . My work cited in their Report 2005
• Appointed member RAE Sub Panel “Health Services Research.” 2005
• Represented the U.K at UNESCO Bioethics Committee Paris . 2004
• Represented the U.K at International Bioethics Summit , Athens 2004.

EUROSTEM ethical Framework 25 November 2004

HINXTON GROUP

Specific research interests:

Ethics and Policy dimensions of Genetics, Biotechnology, Transplantation, Medicine, Embryo experimentation, Stem Cells genetic and other Enhancement, Disability, Biomedical Sciences, and more generally, Justice, Human Rights, Equality, Responsibility,Ethics, bioethics, medical ethics, genetics, embryo experimentation, reproductive ethics, organs and tissue, genethics, stem cells, research ethics.

Research Projects:

• Research Grants.AIDS: Ethics, Justice and European Policy. Funding Agency:Commission of the European Communities (DGXII),Biomedical and Health Research Programme   (BIOMED 1)Coordinator: Professor John Harris. Grant: 302,000 ECUs (approximately £250,000).Dates: January 1993 - January 1996.

The Project was coordinated entirely within the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy at the University of Manchester . This major research project was originally made up of 19 groups from 7 Western European nations with the addition of 14 groups in January 1994 from 7 Central and Eastern European nations under the Commission’s Cooperation in Science and Technology with Central and Eastern European Countries (PECO) initiative.

• AIDS: Ethics, Justice and European Policy - Central and Eastern Europe. Funding Agency: Commission of the European Communities (DGXII). Biomedical and Health Research Programme (BIOMED1). Cooperation in Science and Technology with Central and Eastern European Countries (PECO). Coordinator: Professor John Harris. Grant: 117,200 ECUs (approximately £98,000). Dates: January 1994 - January 1996.
• European Communities International Symposium on ‘Reproductive Choice’.Funding Agency: Commission of the European Communities (DGXII). Biomedical and Health Research Programme (BIOMED 1). Coordinator: Professor John Harris. Grant: 29,500 ECUs (approximately £24,500). Dates: 8th, 9th and 10th September, 1994.

• Ethical Issues in Biomedical Research with cognitively impaired elderly subjects.Funding Agency: Commission of the European Communities (DGXII). Biomedical and Health Research Programme (BIOMED 1). Grant: 6,600 ECUs. Dates: 1 st January 1994- 1 st January 1996 .

• Communicable diseases, lifestyles and personal responsibility: Ethics and Rights.Funding Agency: Commission of the European Communities (DGXII). Biomedical and Health Research Programme (Biomed II). Project Co-ordinator: Professor John Harris. Grant: 500,000 Euros (Approximately £416,600). Dates: 1 st April 1996 - 31 st March 1999 .

The project involved three main partners and a further 6 groups from ten countries in all and is directed and co-ordinated by CSEP in Manchester .

• EUROSTEM. The Ethics of Stem Cell Research and Therapy in Europe. Funding Agency: European Commission. Chief Scientist: Professor John Harris. Grant: €747000. Dates: February 2002 –May 2005.

• EURECA. Investigating the Nature of Scientific Research. Funding Agency: European Commission. Chief Scientist: Professor John Harris. Grant: € 700,000.00. Dates: 1 st February 2004-1 st February 2007.
• CLEMIT €128,000.00 European Commission funded project on reproduction and cloning 2004-2007. Project Partner John Harris.

Total Research funding since 1994 approx £2,000,000.00

Teaching:

I teach on the MA/Diploma and Intercalated BSc in Health Care Ethics and Medical Law and currently supervise 6 PhD students. Details of all Health Care Ethics and Law degrees at Manchester - including the innovative MA by distributed learning - are available here.

Other Information:

John Harris has throughout his career defended broadly libertarian - consequentialist approaches to issues in bioethics. This has made him a leading defender of the rights of the individual to access medical technology and to benefit from medical services. He has defended the individual’s entitlement to these things regardless of age, life expectancy, level of disability, quality of life or genetic pre-disposition to illness. He has been and remains a leading critic of paternalistic or restrictive approaches to regulation or legislation of access to medical services or technology.

Media Availability:

Available to comment in all media on all aspects of Medical Ethics and Bioethics.Genetics, Transplantation, Embryo Experimentation, Stem Cells.