International health and bioethics expert appointed to lead Ireland's First Ethics Institute at DCU
- 20 May 2008

DCU has appointed a leading international health and bioethics expert, Dr Bert Gordijn, to the new Chair of Ethics. Dr Gordijn will lead DCU's new Ethics Institute beginning on September 1^st , 2008.

Dr Gordijn has considerable experience with ethical case deliberation, policy issues, setting up teaching programs and Hospital Ethics Committees, both nationally and internationally. In his research he has pursued a wide range of critical ethics issues, including analysis of the ethical and social issues involved in tissue engineering, interventions in biological aging, germ line genome modifications, neural engineering and nanomedicine.

"These medical research fields are currently prone to inspiring utopian speculations, arousing considerable euphoria, and require careful scrutiny from an ethical perspective," said Dr Gordijn.

The President of DCU Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski said: "We are delighted to have such an outstanding academic in this field taking up the chair of ethics at DCU and leadership of Ireland's first Ethics Institute. "Developments in life sciences have raised ethics issues in human embryo and stem cell research, the human genome project, cloning and other areas. Ireland has lacked an appropriate forum for public discussion and debate on these complex sciences and the ethical issues involved. "

Also, Irish society is addressing a number of basic questions about law and morality, personal and professional integrity in public life, honesty within business transactions, the importance of truth in public discourse, and levels of professional negligence in health care systems. All this has led to scepticism over the possibility of ethical conduct in some areas of public life, and confusion over where guidance in ethics will be found for the future.

"In recent times too on a global level, major ethics issues have arisen in journalism. The Institute will help fill a significant need in Irish life by addressing these fundamental questions," he said.

Dr Gordijn has studied Philosophy and History at the Universities of Utrecht (Netherlands), Strasbourg (France) and Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany). In 1995 he was awarded a doctorate in Philosophy; in 2003 he received a doctorate in Bioethics. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics at Lancaster University (UK), the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University (USA) and the Fondation Brocher (Switzerland).

Dr Gordijn currently holds the post of Lecturer and Clinical Ethicist within the Department of Ethics, Philosophy & History of Medicine at the Radboud University, Nijmegen (Netherlands). In addition, he is is Secretary of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care, an international academic organisation with 450 members from more than 40 countries.

He has been appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Patent Office, the External Science Advisory Panel of the European Chemical Industry Council, and the UNESCO expert committee on ethics and nanotechnology He also holds a number of editorial positions in key international ethics publications including being Editor-in-Chief of the /International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology/ (published by Springer) as well as two peer reviewed journals: /Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy/ (also published by Springer) and /Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology/ (published by Berkeley Electronic Press).

At present in Ireland, ethical debates are largely carried out by specialist interest groups of academics or professionals who focus on one or two particular issues or areas. The new DCU Institute for Ethics will be the first such institution, internationally, to be concerned with ethical decision-making across a wide range of disciplines, including business, technology, politics, media, healthcare, life sciences and education.

ENDS