Professor Richard Ashcroft

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

email: r.ashcroft@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7882 3940

Professor Richard Ashcroft teaches medical law and ethics at both undergraduate and postgraduate level in the Department of Law at Queen Mary, University of London.

Previously he was Professor of Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and before that he worked at Imperial College London, Bristol University and Liverpool University.

Research interests:

In 2010/11 Professor Ashcroft is on sabbatical leave, working on incentives in health promotion, and human rights in bioethics.

Professor Ashcroft is Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Incentives in Health, funded by the Wellcome Trust, with partners at Kings College London and the London School of Economics.  He is also working on the role of human rights theory, law and practice in bioethics policy, and on ethical challenges in public health.  He has a longstanding interest in biomedical research ethics.

Professor Ashcroft won a share of a £850,000 Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Biomedical Ethics Read about the Centre for the Study of Incentives in Health [PDF] or visit www.kcl.ac.uk

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 an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Ethics in Medicine, Bristol University and a fellow of the ETHOX Centre, Oxford University.

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, Director of the Appointing Authority for Phase I Ethics Committees and a member of the Royal College of Physicians working party on tobacco. 

Publications:

Key publications

  • Ashcroft RE, Dawson AJ, Draper HJA, McMillan J (eds.) Principles of Health Care Ethics (2nd edition), John Wiley, 2007
  • Ashcroft RE “Prenatal diagnosis and abortion for congenital abnormalities: Is it ethical to provide one without the other?” American J Bioethics 2009; 9(8): 48-56
  • O’Reilly M, Dixon-Woods M, Angell E, Ashcroft RE, Bryman A. Doing accountability: A discourse analysis of research ethics committee letters. Sociology of Health and Illness 2009; 31(2): 246-261
  • Gilmore AB, Britton J, Arnott D, Ashcroft RE, Jarvis MJ. The place for harm reduction and product regulation in UK tobacco control policy. J Public Health 2009; 31(1): 3-10
  • Marteau TM, Ashcroft RE, Oliver AJ. Using financial incentives to achieve healthy behaviour. Br. Med. J 2009; 338: 983-985
  • Dixon-Woods M, Ashcroft RE. Regulation and the social licence for medical research. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 2008; 11(4): 381-391
  • Tutton R, Smart A, Martin PA, Ashcroft RE, Ellison GTH. Genotyping the future: Scientists’ expectations about race/ethnicity after BiDil. J Law, Medicine & Ethics 2008; 36(3): 464-470
  • van Delden JJM, Ashcroft RE, Dawson A, Marckmann G, Upshur R, Verweij M. The ethics of mandatory vaccination against influenza for health care workers. Vaccine 2008; 26: 5562-5566
  • Angell EL, Jackson CJ, Ashcroft RE, Bryman A, Windridge K, Dixon-Woods M “Is ‘inconsistency’ in Research Ethics Committee decision-making really a problem? An empirical investigation and reflection” Clinical Ethics 2007; 2(2): 92-99
  • Dixon-Woods M, Angell E, Ashcroft RE, Bryman A “Written work: The social functions of Research Ethics Committee letters” Social Science and Medicine 2007; 65(4): 792-802
  • Ellison GTH, Smart A, Tutton R, Outram SM, Ashcroft RE, Martin P “Racial categories in medicine: A failure of evidence-based practice?” PLOS Medicine 2007; 4(9): e287 (1434-1436)
  • Dixon-Woods M, Ashcroft RE, Jackson CJ, Tobin MD, Kivits J, Burton PR, Samani NJ “Beyond ‘misunderstanding’: Written information and decisions about taking part in a genetic epidemiology study” Social Science and Medicine 2007; 65: 2212-2222
  • Angell EL, Bryman A, Ashcroft RE, Dixon-Woods M “An analysis of decision-letters by research ethics committees: the ethics/scientific quality boundary examined”. Quality and Safety in Health Care 2008; 17: 131-136
  • 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
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