Two leading Newcastle University researchers have been appointed to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

Professors Erica Haimes and Julian Hughes join 14 other members on the prestigious council.

The Council was established in 1991 and is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council. In recent years it has published comprehensive reports on ethical issues including dementia, mitochondrial DNA disorders, human bodily donation for medicine and research, public health and ‘personalised healthcare’. 

Erica Haimes is Professor of Sociology at Newcastle University and Founding Executive Director of PEALS (Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences) where she is currently Professorial Fellow. She works at the interface of sociology and bioethics to investigate the ethical, cultural, economic and political challenges of developments in the life sciences. She has been a member of several national and international ethics advisory bodies.

Julian Hughes is a consultant in Psychiatry of Old Age in Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and an honorary professor of philosophy of ageing at the Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University. His writings and research focus on philosophical and ethical issues raised in connection with ageing and dementia. He was on the Council’s working party on dementia, which reported in 2009.

published on: 14 March 2013