Professional Ethics at Keele (PEAK)

PEAK is part of the School of Law. The PEAK Research Group is part of the Centre for Law Ethics and Society. Founded in 2002, Keele’s Centre for Professional Ethics (also known as PEAK – Professional Ethics at Keele) has been a leading centre for research and teaching in ethics for over a decade.

The Centre was one of the first providers of training for research ethics committees in the UK and Ireland.

We have one of the UK's longest running MA programmes in Medical Ethics and Law, and a unique MA in Medical Ethics and Palliative Care, run in conjunction with the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool.

We are able to supervise research degrees (PhD and MPhil) in many fields of applied and professional ethics. Particular interests include: bioethics; commercial exploitation of the human body; the concept of eugenics; ethics and children; ethics and mental health; ethics and addiction; ethics of risk; ethics of resource allocation; ethics of policing and criminal justice; and research ethics.

We run a programme of public lectures in Healthcare Ethics and Law, sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy, and regularly hold conferences and workshops at Keele, which our students are encouraged to attend.

PEAK staff

Professor Anthony Wrigley

Professor Anthony Wrigley
Professor of Ethics

Dr Jonathan Hughes

Dr Jonathan Hughes
Senior Lecturer

Dr Kirsty Moreton

Dr Kirsty Moreton
Lecturer