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Chappell's recent work developing an anti-systematic philosophical ethics, and in particular his work on the notions of personhood and second-personality, has had an impact on (1) provision of public and health services, (2) policy-making, and (3) cultural life. He has presented work on ethics and persons to public audiences in Northampton, Mexico City, Oxford, St Andrews, Leeds, Milan, and Sydney. Besides a general intellectual-cultural impact on these public audiences, he has had specific impacts on thinking and practice (1) in paediatrics at The Northampton General Hospital and (2) in religious and educational constituencies in Britain and Australia.
In 2008 the Philosophy Department decided to organise its impact strategy around the research activities of the Essex Autonomy Project (EAP). EAP research has been conducted in two distinct strands with different research outputs and impacts. This case study summarises the impact of our work concerning the legal concept of best interests decision-making. Through EAP public policy roundtables, EAP technical reports, and through work with public organisations and public officials, EAP research has informed professional and public discussion of the law of best interests, has had impact in the development of public policy guidelines for implementing legal requirements, and has played a role in the review and reform of existing regulatory frameworks.
This case study will focus primarily on the ethics of end-of-life care as an illustration of the impact of David Albert Jones' research. Jones has engaged in theological and philosophical research in bioethics at St Mary's University College (SMUC) since 2002. This research has covered a broad range of issues from the status of the human embryo, to organ donation, to the creation of novel human-nonhuman organisms. Jones's research on bioethics from a Catholic perspective has had a significant impact on understanding of these issues within the Catholic Community and on the character and level of public debate. It has also had a demonstrable effect on public policy
Prof. Jonathan Dancy has over several decades developed the theory of ethical particularism, culminating in seminal publications dating from his time at the University of Reading, most notably his magnum opus Ethics Without Principles (2004). Particularism has had an impact within the legal profession, not just among legal scholars but on practitioners themselves, even to the extent of its being applied in judicial decision-making. It has also, partly through serendipitous means capitalised upon by Dancy himself, found its way into public ethical debate — directly contributing to the enrichment of civil society and stimulation of cultural life by introducing non-academics to a powerful and provocative new view of morality.
Professor Angus Dawson's research in public health ethics has
a) had a direct, global impact on public health policies, frameworks and interventions
b) contributed to improving the quality of decision-making about public health interventions.
His research has influenced the World Health Organisation's policy on the treatment of tuberculosis, Ontario's public health policy, the US Federal Agency's policy on the preparedness and response to public health emergencies, and a British Medical Association position paper on universal childhood Hepatitis B vaccination. Dawson's research has sought to define the nature of public health, the boundaries of ethical deliberation, and has introduced values, such as the `common good', to supplement the previous narrow range of values that tended to focus on individuals.
For over a decade, Professor Julian Savulescu has produced a body of work on the enhancement of human beings and its ethical implications, including work on the ethics of genetic selection and on the ethics of using technology to enhance human capacities. This work has had an influence on public policy, in particular by influencing government bodies in Norway, the United States, and Australia, and on business and industry. It has also been used in teaching material for secondary school pupils by the Wellcome Collection. Furthermore, through the many prestigious public lectures that Professor Savulescu has given and the seminars that he has led, through the television and radio interviews that he has given, and through the extensive discussion of his ideas in the press and online, he has both contributed to the public awareness of and stimulated lively debate around such issues as what distinguishes the use of doping in sport from seemingly acceptable forms of enhancement, and what if anything is wrong with designer babies.
Professor Christopher Cook's research on the role of spirituality in psychiatric care has had a wide-ranging effect on professional debate, policy and practice amongst psychiatrists in the UK and beyond. His argument that psychiatry should undertake a constructive and nuanced engagement with spirituality, defined broadly, has sparked widespread debate within the profession. His work with an NHS trust since 2008 has produced a set of new clinical service initiatives, and his wider influence led the Royal College of Psychiatrists to commission him to produce its first formal policy statement on spirituality and religion, adopted in 2011.
Within the field of `computer ethics', considerations of the design processes required for software development has remained relatively neglected until the foundational work of Dr Penny Duquenoy under the direction of Prof. Harold Thimbleby helped introduce and establish the need for such concerns. The impact of the embedding of ethics in technology is observable by noting the routine use of ethics expert reviewers and evaluators and on Advisory Boards in EU funded projects since 2007. This has been replicated by the EPSRC who also now include input from ethics experts into their programmes such as the RCUK `Global Uncertainties' initiative. At a professional level, ethics has also become a core consideration for the British Computer Society and its representations to the community it serves.
Nigel Biggar's recent research has developed novel Christian ethical analyses of a range of overlapping issues of public concern regarding the ethics of killing - specifically physician-assisted suicide and war. Articles written for the press have been frequently quoted by journalists and politicians; a wide audience has been reached through participation in radio debates and lectures to members of the public. Collaboration with public policy bodies and colloquia involving senior civil servants and other opinion-formers have provided further platforms in which advice is sought and given.
More than a decade's research at the University of Leeds has focused on a cohesive set of issues bearing directly and indirectly on ethics in the workplace: reasons for action, moral psychology, good judgement, character and integrity. The impact of this work covers: consultancy on organisational ethics; development and delivery of CPD for engineers; use of web-based and online materials to engage professionals in ethical reasoning; applied research and engagement with practitioners on integrity at work; a submission to the Leveson enquiry; and an ethics template for the National Nuclear Laboratory. Its significance and reach in embedding ethics in professional life is demonstrated by the range of these activities and the size of the organisations involved.