Biographical Notes of the Current Board Members
Tuija Takala (Finland), President
Tuija is Academy Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor (Docent) in Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Previously she was Senior Lecturer in Bioethics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Manchester, UK. Dr. Takala has written extensively on a variety of bioethical issues and her articles have been published in journals including Bioethics; Journal of Medical Ethics; Developing World Bioethics; Journal of Medicine and Philosophy; Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy; Medical Law International; Trames, and Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. She is Associate Editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics and Editor of the Values in Bioethics special book series (Rodopi). Her current research interests lie in the conceptual, methodological and theoretical aspects of philosophical bioethics.
Roberto Andorno (Switzerland), President-Elect
Roberto Andorno is a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the School of Law of the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Originally from Argentina, he holds doctoral degrees in law from the Universities of Buenos Aires (1991 and Paris XII (1994), both on topics related to assisted reproductive technologies. He was Adjunct Professor of Civil Law at the University of Buenos Aires (1995-1998). Between 1999 and 2005 he conducted various research projects relating to bioethics, human dignity and human rights at the Laval University (Canada) and at the Universities of Göttingen and Tübingen, in Germany. From 1998 to 2005 he served as a member of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) of UNESCO, and participated in this capacity in the drafting of the International Declaration on Human Genetic Data (2003) and of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005).
Gerrit Kimsma (Netherlands), Treasurer
Gerrit K.Kimsma has been university associate in medicine and philosophy, practicing family medicine since 1976 and teaching medical ethics and philosophy to medical students and medical ethics to Post Graduate Training for Family Medicine at the Vrije Universiteit at Amsterdam since 1970. Publications since 1975 in numbers of about 100 articles in journals, books and papers, about 60 presentations in Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France), USA and Australia. Book publications since 1987, starting with 'Medicine between Dream and Drama',(with HAMJ ten Have), last major book publication with Thomasma, Kushner and Ciesielski called 'Asking to Die. Inside the Dutch Euthanasia Debate.' , Kluwer Academic Publications, Dordrecht/London/Boston, 1998, with ethical and legal discussions, interviews with families where euthanasia took place, and interviews with physicians who describe their experiences )
Bert Gordijn (Ireland), Secretary
Bert Gordijn is Chair of Ethics and Director of the Institute of Ethics at Dublin City University. He has studied Philosophy and History at the Universities of Utrecht, Strasbourg and Freiburg in Breisgau. 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, the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University and the Fondation Brocher. Bert is Editor-in-Chief of a book series, "The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology" (Springer), as well as two peer reviewed journals, "Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy" (Springer) and "Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology" (Berkeley Electronic Press). He has been appointed to the External Science Advisory Panel of the European Chemical Industry Council and has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Patent Organization as well as the UNESCO Expert Committee on Ethics and Nanotechnology.
Renzo Pegoraro (Italy), member
Renzo Pegoraro was born in Padua, (Italy), June 4, 1959 and graduated as Doctor of Medicine at the University of Padua (1985).He studied philosophy and theology in Padua and in Rome, graduating with the Licence in Moral Theology (1990). He graduated with Diploma in Corso di perfezionamento in Bioetica at the Catholic University in Rome and was ordained priest in 1989. In 1993 he was a visiting researcher at the Kennedy Institute, Washington D.C. and he became Professor of Bioethics at the Faculty of Theology of Northern Italy in Padua, and Director of the Fondazione Lanza (a Center of advanced studies in ethics, bioethics and environmental ethics). He is Professor of Bioethics at the School for Obstetricians of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Padua. Since 2006 is the President of the Ethics Committee of the Regional Institute of Oncology and since 1998 he is the President of the Research Ethics Committee of the University-General Hospital of Padua. Between 2000-2002, he was member of the Italian National Healthcare Council and he serves as an ethicist in several institutions.He was President of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Philosophy of Medecine and Health Care (ESPMH), 2005-2007 and is now member of the Executive Committee and is also a member of the Bureau of the European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics (EACME), since 2002. Between 2000-2007 he was member and teacher of the Steering Committee of the “European Master of Bioethics” (University of Leuven, Nijmegen, Basel, Padova, and Fondazione Lanza). Renzo is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Medicine, Healthcare and Philosophy as well as the Editorial Board of the Book Series International Library of Ethics, Law and the New Medicine (Published by Springer). In addition, he is Book Review Editor of the Journal Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. He publishes articles in journals and books on different issues in biomedical ethics, particularly on: religion and bioethics, human experimentation, organ transplantation, elderly care.
Margaret Pabst Battin (USA), member
Margaret (Peggy) Battin is professor of philosophy and medical ethics at the University of Utah, has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited some twenty books, including works on philosophical issues in suicide, case-puzzles in aesthetics, ethical issues in organized religion, and various topics in bioethics. She has published two collections of essays on end-of-life issues, The Least Worst Death and Ending Life, and has been the lead for two multi-authored projects, Drugs and Justice and The Patient as Victim and Vector: Ethics and Infectious Disease. In 1997, she won the University of Utah’s Distinguished Research award, and in 2000, she received the Rosenblatt Prize, the University’s most prestigious award.
Eugenijus Gefenas (Lithuania), member
Eugenijus Gefenas is chairman of Lithuanian Bioethics Committee, Assoc. Prof. and Head of the Department of Medical History and Ethics at Medical Faculty of Vilnius University. Education: 1983, M.D., Medical Faculty of Vilnius University; 1993, Ph.D., Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law, Vilnius. Career: 1983-1989, Medical Doctor at Vilnius Central Hospital; 1989-1993, Postgraduate student, Ethical Department, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Vilnius; 1993-1997, Lecturer of Medical Ethics, Medical Faculty of Vilnius University; 1993 - present, Senior Researcher, Ethical Department, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Vilnius; 1995 - present, Chairman of Lithuanian National Bioethics Committee; 1997 - present, Associate Professor, Medical Faculty of Vilnius University; 2002 - present, Head of the Department of Medical History and Ethics, Medical Faculty of Vilnius University
Fuat Oduncu (Germany), member
Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Dr. phil. Fuat S. Oduncu, M.A., European Master in Bioethics, was born in Midyat (Turkey) in 1970. He studied medicine (University of Munich), Philosophy (Jesuite Private University and University of Munich) and Bioethics (European Master in Bioethics at the Universities of Nijmegen, Leuven, Madrid, Padova). In 2005 he passed his Ph.D. in Internal Medicine (Habilitation) at the Faculty of Medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. Dr. Oduncu passed several medical qualifications: internal medicine, hematology and oncology, and palliative medicine. At moment, he is a practising senior internist, hematologist and oncologist at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital of Munich. Besides, he teaches medical ethics at the medical faculty of the Technical University of Munich. Dr. Oduncu is member of several national and international scientific societies, and already member of the Editorial Board of the ESPMH journal Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy. He published more than 100 scientific medical and ethical contributions on hematological malignancies, organ transplantation, brain death, reproductive medicine, genetic counselling, stem cell research, palliative care, and euthanasia. Moreover, he is chief-editor of the interdisciplinary book series “Medicine-Ethics-Law” (Medizin-Ethik-Recht, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlag Göttingen). Dr. Oduncu has been awarded several prizes, among others with the „Theodor-Fontane-Preis“ der Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (1996), „Ethik-Preis“ des Deutschen Allgemeinen Sonntagsblatts (1998), Fellowship for the European Master in Bioethics (2000-2001), Walter-Brendel-Transplantationsstipendium (2001), Vincenz-Czerny-Preis for Oncology of the German Society for Hematology and Oncology (2005).
Niall Scott (UK), member
Niall Scott is Senior Lecturer in Ethics, Course leader for the MA in Bioethics and Medical Law. He works in the Philosophy section of ISCRI. As Course leader for the MA in Bioethics and Medical Law he is part of a teaching team engaged in the delivery of postgraduate bioethics modules, but also teaches on the undergraduate BA in philosophy. Having qualifications in Biology, Theology and Philosophy,his research interests are wide ranging, but he is currently doing work on the relationship between political thought and Bioethics. His books include Altruism, published by Open University press, and he has published material and spoken internationally in the fields of bioethics and on heavy metal, politics and philosophy. The latter has given him global media attention, through is work in this field with inter-disciplinary.net. He is a member of the anarchist studies network (ASN), a member of the European Society for Philosophy Medicine and Healthcare (ESPMH), member of the Friends of Wisdom network, and is the secretary for the Association for Social and Legal Philosophers.