Table Of ContentThe making of British bioethics
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The making of
British bioethics
Duncan Wilson
Manchester University Press
Copyright © Duncan Wilson 2014
The right of Duncan Wilson to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA, UK
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
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Distributed in the United States exclusively by
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Distributed in Canada exclusively by
UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 9619 8 hardback
ISBN 978 1 8477 9887 9 open access
First published 2014
This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons
(CC-BY-NC-ND) licence, thanks to the support of The Wellcome Trust. A copy of
the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/.
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for
any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does
not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or
appropriate.
Typeset in 10/12 Sabon by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
Printed in Great Britain
by TJ International Ltd, Padstow
To Nisha and my parents,
and in memory of John Pickstone
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
List of abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 Ethics ‘by and for professions’: the origins and
endurance of club regulation 24
2 Ian Ramsey, theology and ‘trans-disciplinary’ medical
ethics 64
3 ‘Who’s for bioethics?’ Ian Kennedy, oversight and
accountability in the 1980s 105
4 ‘Where to draw the line?’ Mary Warnock, embryos and
moral expertise 140
5 ‘A service to the community as a whole’: the emergence
of bioethics in British universities 187
6 Consolidating the ‘ethics industry’: a national ethics
committee and bioethics during the 1990s 220
Conclusion 255
Bibliography 270
Index 298
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Acknowledgements
My interest in British bioethics started during my PhD research, when
I noticed that philosophers, lawyers and other ‘outsiders’ had begun
to enter debates that had traditionally been the preserve of doctors
and scientists from the mid 1970s onwards. I soon realised that the
growth of this outside input, or ‘bioethics’, was well documented for
the United States, but that there was much less written for Britain,
where it emerged slightly later and for different reasons. I decided
then to make the history of British bioethics my next research topic.
The progression from that initial idea to this book owes a lot to
the help of many people. I first want to thank the Wellcome Trust
for funding my research (grant number 081493). I am also grateful
to the many archivists who provided access to materials. I want to
thank staff at the National Archives, London; the Wellcome Library
for the History of Medicine, London; the John Rylands Library at
the University of Manchester; the British Film Institute, London;
the Durham Cathedral archives; and the Historical Collections
at the University of Virginia. I owe particular thanks to those people
who allowed me to look through private papers and uncatalogued
archives. I want to thank Catherine Spanswick, from the University
of Manchester’s Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation (ISEI),
for letting me access papers from the Centre for Social Ethics and
Policy; David Archard, from the University of Belfast, who let
me look at papers from the Society for Applied Philosophy when
he was working at the University of Lancaster; and Jonathan
Montgomery, from University College London, who let me look
through c orrespondence relating to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
I am extremely grateful to all the interviewees listed in the bib-
liography. My research would not have been possible had they not
spared the time to meet me and patiently answer my questions. I am
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Acknowledgements ix
also grateful to the many people whom I did not formally interview,
but who provided me with crucial materials and leads. I owe par-
ticular thanks to Robin Downie, for his hospitality in Glasgow and
many useful readings. I also owe thanks to David Archard, Margaret
Brazier, Raymond Plant, Rebecca Bennett, Richard Ashcroft, Adam
Hedgecoe, David Weatherhall, Nathan Emmerich, Noortje Jacobs
and Bella Starling, for providing valuable material and information
on developments in sociology, bioethics, philosophy, law and the
biomedical sciences.
I am also indebted to everyone who gave feedback on seminar
papers at the University of Leeds, the London School for Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, University College London, Imperial College
London, the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester, the
Postgraduate Conference on Bioethics and the Institute for Historical
Research’s 2011 conference on Anglo-American History. I am espe-
cially grateful to colleagues at the University of Manchester’s Centre
for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM), who
gave me valuable advice on ideas, drafts and potential titles. These
include, in no particular order, Michael Worboys, Neil Pemberton,
Emma Jones, Michael Bresalier, Carsten Timmermann, Ed Ramsden,
Rob Kirk, Elizabeth Toon and Jenny Goodare. I owe particular
thanks to my former colleague Sam Alberti, now director of the
Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London,
and to John Pickstone, most recently emeritus professor at CHSTM,
who both gave feedback on several draft chapters.
We were all deeply saddened when John died following a short
illness in February 2014. He was CHSTM’s founding director and
remained a huge presence in the department, and the field more gener-
ally, until his death. Aside from an incomparable body of work, John’s
legacy is evident in the number of historians he mentored and encour-
aged – myself included. I valued his help with this book as much as
I did when I started my PhD under his supervision, and will miss
his guidance and friendship. John’s advice was peerless, as always,
and improved the book a great deal. It goes without saying that any
mistakes that may appear in the following chapters are mine alone.
I also want to thank friends and family who have put up with me
throughout this whole process. My parents, John and Helen Wilson,
continue to provide invaluable support and still don’t tell me to ‘get
a real job’. Nisha, meanwhile, is the best proofreader, friend and
wife anyone could wish for.
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Abbreviations
AAMR Association for the Advancement of Medicine by
Research
BAAS British Association for the Advancement of Science
BMA British Medical Association
BSSRS British Society for Social Responsibility in Science
CCH Churches’ Council of Healing
CCHMS Central Committee for Hospital Medical Services
CEC Central Ethical Committee
CHAI Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection
CHI Commission for Health Improvement
CMO Chief Medical Officer
CSEP Centre for Social Ethics and Policy
DES Department of Education and Science
DHSS Department for Health and Social Security
EMG Edinburgh Medical Group
ESBAC Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Committee
FMG Frontier Medical Group
GMAG Genetic Manipulation Advisory Group
GMC General Medical Council
HFEA Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
HGC Human Genetics Commission
HRA Health Research Agency
HTA Human Tissue Authority
IME Institute of Medical Ethics
IRM Institute of Religion and Medicine
LMG London Medical Group
MMG Manchester Medical Group
MRC Medical Research Council
NCP National Committee for Philosophy
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