The international growth and influence of bioethics has led some to identify it as a decisive shift in the location and exercise of 'biopower'. This book provides an in-depth study of how philosophers, lawyers and other 'outsiders' came to play a major role in discussing and helping to regulate issues that used to be left to doctors and scientists. It discusses how club regulation stemmed not only from the professionalising tactics of doctors and scientists, but was compounded by the 'hands-off' approach of politicians and professionals in fields such as law, philosophy and theology. The book outlines how theologians such as Ian Ramsey argued that 'transdisciplinary groups' were needed to meet the challenges posed by secular and increasingly pluralistic societies. It also examines their links with influential figures in the early history of American bioethics. The book centres on the work of the academic lawyer Ian Kennedy, who was the most high-profile advocate of the approach he explicitly termed 'bioethics'. It shows how Mary Warnock echoed governmental calls for external oversight. Many clinicians and researchers supported her calls for a 'monitoring body' to scrutinise in vitro fertilisation and embryo research. The growth of bioethics in British universities occurred in the 1980s and 1990s with the emergence of dedicated centres for bioethics. The book details how some senior doctors and bioethicists led calls for a politically-funded national bioethics committee during the 1980s. It details how recent debates on assisted dying highlight the authority and influence of British bioethicists.
Abbreviations for Archives and Government Acts
Archives
Bethlem Museum of the Mind Archives. BMM.S11.CFM: Microfilmed Database of Patient Case Notes from the Maudsley Hospital, 1923–38 (restricted access).
Hansard. The Official Report of Parliamentary Debates, UK Parliament and House of Lords Transcripts.
King’s College London Archives. KCL/BCGC: Brixton Child Guidance Clinic Administrative Archive, 1951–88.
Maudsley Hospital Archives. MHCP/A: Maudsley Hospital Childhood Psychosis/Autism Archive, 1950–90 (restricted access, anonymised reference numbers).
National Archives. NA/ED50/994: Records from Board of Education and Medical Branch concerning ‘Psychotic Autistic Children’, 1961–65.
National Archives. NA/ED50/944: Transfer of Responsibility for Junior Training Centres for Children Unsuitable for Education at School from the Ministry of Health to the Local Education Authorities, 1969–70.
National Archives. NA/ED50/969: Society for Autistic Children, 1964–68.
National Archives. NA/BD 18/1438: Appointments of Consultants in Child Psychiatry, 1965.
National Archives. NA/M.603(1)/61 (ED 50/789–792): Correspondence with Local Authorities on Special Educational Treatment, 1958–63.
National Archives. NA/FD9/901 MRC Developmental Psychology Unit: Physiological Study with Autistic Children.
National Autistic Society Archives. NAS: National Autistic Society Historical Records, 1963–2014 (boxes 1–8 – uncatalogued).
Royal Society Archives. UFPA: Uta Frith Personal Notes and Collected Material.
Wellcome Trust Archives. WT/PSY/BPS: British Psychological Society Archives, 1891–2005.
Wellcome Trust Archives. WT/PP/ADD/5: Inter-Clinic Conference and Child Guidance Trust Papers, 1958–80.
Wellcome Trust Archives. WT/PSY/KEN/4/1: Lucy G. Fildes Archive.
Abbreviations
CA1989(1991) | Children Act 1989 (1991) |
CLAAPS1968 | Report of the Committee on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services (1968) |
CSDPA1970(1971) | Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 (1971) |
MHA1959 | Mental Health Act 1959 |
WARNOCK1978 | Special Educational Needs: Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People (1978) |