Research - Keele University
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The Centre for Professional Ethics

(PEAK)

Why Study Ethics at Keele?

Professional Ethics at Keele

Research at PEAK

Research at Keele is structured within Research Institutes. The PEAK Research Group is located in the Centre for Law, Ethics and Society, within the Research Institute for Social Sciences.

PEAK academics are engaged in research, publication and supervision of research students in a wide range of areas of applied and professional ethics, including:

  • Ethics of biotechnology
  • Commercial exploitation of the human body
  • The concept of eugenics
  • Public health ethics
  • The ethics of risk
  • The ethics of resource allocation
  • Embryo Research
  • Repoduction and Assisted Reproduction
  • Abortion
  • Conscientious Objection
  • Organ Donation
  • Resource Allocation
  • Public Health Ethics
  • Feminist ethics
  • Sexual ethics
  • Bioethics
  • Research ethics
  • Global justice
  • Distributive justice, especially in healthcare
  • Medical tourism

Research interests of individual PEAK staff can be found on the staff pages.

We are institutional members of a wide range of organisations:

Additionally, many of the academic staff are members of the British Society for Ethical Theory (BSET) We have research links with a number of EU institutions through the Lifelong Learning Plan, including Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands and Goteborg University in Sweden.

Academic staff regularly publish in academic and professional journals. We encourage academic staff to work collaboratively, and a number of papers are written jointly with colleagues in the School of Law. A number of staff have also written joint papers with students for publication in professional journals.

We are also a branch of the Royal Institute of Philosophy and organise and host an annual programme of seminars entitled Issues in Healthcare Ethics, Law, and Philosophy. These seminars are open to the general public and are free of charge.

Within Keele, we organise an informal series of colloquia with colleagues in Law on issues related to medical ethics and law Additionally, there is an active postgraduate reading group organised by PEAK and Philosophy postgraduate students.

There are currently a number of part-time and full-time research students in the Centre, who are working towards the award of MPhil, MRes or PhD, mainly in the area of health care ethics. Our profile in this area has increased since November 2002, when we accepted our first intake of students onto our Professional Doctorate in Medical Ethics (the DMedEth). The DMedEth is designed for senior healthcare professionals who already have an MA in Ethics or a related subject, and want to undertake further work Full time research students are given the opportunity to attend the taught elements of this course as part of their research skills training, or as part of an MRes in Medical Ethics.

We host regular conferences and workshops on topical issue in law and ethics. Previous conferences and workshops have included:

  • The conjoined twins legal case Re A. (Papers published in Medical Law Review, Vol.9. No.3. Autumn 2001.)
  • The regulation of reproductive issues by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). (Papers published in Health Care Analysis, vol.12, no.1. Spring 2004.)
  • Priority setting in health care. (Papers published in Health Care Analysis, vol 14, no. 3. September 2006.)
  • Children and the Concept of 'Best Interests'
  • Food, Ethics, and the Public's Health. (Papers published in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, vol. 20, no. 3, 2007.)

Details of forthcoming workshops and other events can be found in our news and events section.