Who Are You Today? Problems of Identity in Bioethics and Law

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒂𝒎 𝑰? How do you begin to define yourself? Is it the circumstances that you are in that defines you, or the relationships in which you exist? How do the medical and legal systems see you?

Consider Mr M who has Parkinson’s disease and is being treated with a drug that has the side effect of inducing compulsive behaviour. The medication helps with his symptoms of Parkinson’s, but Mr M has now gambled all of his life savings away and is living on the streets. How would you identify Mr M now? Is he the patient with Parkinson’s, or the homeless gambler? Is it justified to be categorised as the 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖, when there is a 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗮 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞?

Join us on the 𝟐𝟓𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 for the incredible opportunity to challenge your own presumptions about who you think you are, as Dr. Charles Foster, world-renowned 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐯𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐨𝐧, acknowledges the problems of identity in bioethics and law in his talk - 𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑇𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦?

𝐒𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝!

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Dr. Foster currently carries out research and teaches Medical Law and Ethics at the University of Oxford. Among his countless achievements is the Ig Nobel Prize in Biology for his book 𝐵𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡.

As a barrister, he has been involved in various significant medical cases, including the assisted suicide litigation in the House of Lords (𝑃𝑢𝑟𝑑𝑦 𝑣 𝐷𝑃𝑃 [2009]), the Supreme Court (𝑁𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑣 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒 [2014]) and the Supreme Court endorsement of the withdrawal of life-sustaining nutrition and hydration from patients in prolonged disorders of consciousness (𝐴𝑛 𝑁𝐻𝑆 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑣 𝑌 [2018]). Recently, he has also instructed in 𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑣 𝐵𝑒𝑙𝑔𝑖𝑢𝑚 [2019], a challenge in the European Court of Human Rights to the operation of Belgian euthanasia law.

Although his work covers many fields, including Evolutionary Biology, Anthropology, Philosophy, and Law, his current academic interest focuses on the relevance of identity and personhood in decision-making. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including National Geographic and the Journal of Medical Ethics.