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Ruud ter Meulen Professor/Director - Centre for Ethics in Medicine United Kingdom

• 02.10.2018-30.10.2018
  

  Justice, neuroethics and cognitive enhancement

  The objectives of the project are:
  - To update the knowledge of the outcomes of neuroscientific, particularly neuropsychological, research in relation to cognitive enhancement of healthy individuals by way of psycho-pharmacological drugs or brain stimulation techniques.
  - To assess the risks and benefits of these technological enhancements, like the risks of addiction, brain damage (particularly young people), psychological problems (depression) and possibly reduced capacities in other areas (creativity)
  - To analyse the outcomes of neuroscientific research (like the ‘baseline dependent effect’) from the perspective of distributive justice, particularly liberal and egalitarian theories.
  - To raise interest in this issue from educationalists and public policy makers
  - To draft recommendations for policies regarding the use of psychopharmacological drugs and brain stimulation technologies for the purpose of cognitive enhancement.

• 30.09.2014-29.10.2014
  

  Solidarity in Health Care

  I am particularly interested in justice in health care, the ethics of research, care of older people, and evidence-based medicine. I have directed several international research projects, including large-scale projects funded by the European Commission, and have published extensively in the field of bioethics. I am the Director of the Centre for Ethics in Medicine. I was educated in psychology (Catholic University of Nijmegen), an area in which I worked for some years, before moving into the field of bioethics. I was previously the Director of the Institute for Bioethics and Professor for Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Maastricht (1995-2005).
• 02.09.2014-29.09.2014
  

  Solidarity in Health Care

  My stay at the Brocher Foundation will have the objective to widen and update my knowledge of recent developments in health and social care systems and the role of solidarity in selected European countries, including The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, to deepen my current philosophical knowledge of the concept of solidarity, to explore contemporary theoretical developments in relation with solidarity and health care, to discuss my work with colleagues at the Institute for Biomedical ethics in Zurich and with colleagues staying at the Brocher foundation. I also hope to give a presentation at other Swiss institutions to discuss recent developments in Swiss health care policy and at the WHO centre in Geneva to discuss solidarity in health care policies in a global context. These activities would help to the draft of two chapters of the book To reach these objectives I have distinguished the following steps: 1) Collect recent material about solidarity in selected European countries and relevant policies in this context: scarcity of resources, market reform, privatisation of financing health and social care, public support for solidarity (including issues like rationing of resources because of lifestyle issues, access to care for the elderly and other long-term care. This material will be included in Chapter 4. 2) Gathering of evidence of new developments in philosophy and theoretical ethics in relation with the concept of solidarity, including theories of justice, social philosophy, feminist philosophy and ethics of care. The material gathered will be included in Chapter 3 3) Collaboration with the Institute of Biomedical Ethics of the University of Zurich: contribution to seminars on resource allocation, presentation of lectures, and supervision of some students. 4) Presentations at other Swiss institutions and the WHO centre in Geneva (via Institute of Biomedical Ethics in Zurich) 5) Drafting of two chapters (3, 4) based on the research in steps 1 and 2.

Ruud ter Meulen has been working on a broad range of issues in medical ethics, particularly issues of solidarity and justice in health care, ethical issues of health care reform and health policy, ethics of evidence based medicine, ethical issues of long-term care and ethics of research and research ethics committees. He has directed several international projects and was principal co-ordinator of a range of European projects funded within the various Framework Programs of the European Commission. He was the principal coordinator of the SOLIDAR project on the role of solidarity in European health and social care, leader of the workpackage on ‘long-term care for the elderly and allocation of resources’ in the EBEPE project, co-ordinator of the ENHANCE project, dealing with the ethical, philosophical and social issues of enhancement technologies. He was also co-ordinator of the recently finished European EPOCH project on the role of ethics in public policy-making on new biotechnologies, and of the European SYBHEL project on the ethical, legal and social issues of synthetic biology as applied to human health.
Ruud has published about 150 articles, book chapters and edited volumes on a range of topics in bioethics. He is co-author of the book Medische Ethiek (Medical ethics) the leading teaching book on medical ethics in The Netherlands (4th Edition published 2013). He was co-editor of several academic volumes including Solidarity in Health and Social Care in Europe (Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001), Evidence-based practice in Medicine and Health Care. A Discussion of the Ethical Issues (Springer Verlag, 2005) and Enhancing Human Capacities (Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2011). He is currently working on a monograph on the concept of solidarity in health to be published by Cambridge University Press (2015).

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