Professor Michael Parker BEd MA PhD (b. 1958) is Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Ethox Centre at the University of Oxford. Before becoming an academic, he worked for more than a decade with homeless teenagers in London, mostly for a charity called Centrepoint Soho. He did his undergraduate degree in education at Bristol Polytechnic (University of West of England) and a PhD in philosophy at Hull University. His first academic positions were at the University of Central Lancashire, the Open University, and Imperial College London. He moved to Oxford from Imperial College London in 1999. His overarching

research interest is in the practical ethical aspects of the day-to-day work of health professionals and medical researchers, and the development of ‘moral craftsmanship’ in such contexts. He has a long-standing interest in the ethics of clinical genetics and, in 2001, together with Anneke Lucassen, Angus Clarke, and Tara Clancy, he established the Genethics Club – a national ethics forum for genetics professionals to identify and address ethical issues in their work. By 2015, the Genethics Club had met 40 times. This work is published as Ethical Problems and Genethics Practice (Parker (2012)). Michael’s other main research interest is in the ethical issues arising in collaborative global health research; again focusing on day-to-day practical ethics. Together with partners in Kenya, Thailand, Vietnam, Malawi, and South Africa, he co-ordinated the Global Health Bioethics Network, which is funded by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award.

 

Professor Parker is pictured reading a previous Witness Seminar volume, 'Medical Ethics Education in Britain, 1963-1993'