Introduction: David Hunter

As part of this blog we are intending to have each new blogger make a small introduction and say a little bit about themselves. As such I thought it was only fair to begin with myself.

I'm originally from New Zealand, although I am part Cook Island Maori, just the right shade to ensure a patting down at every airport on the fair isle of Britain at the moment.

I am now based in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland where I teach bioethics to a range of students from biomedical scientists, to dietitians, to optometry students. I am also heavily involved in research ethics here serving on my Schools committee, the University committee and ORECNI REC1 (The Northern Ireland equivalent of COREC). I was previously based at Massey University in New Zealand as a temporary lecturer in the School of History, Philosophy and Politics, teaching Ethics, Applied Ethics and Political Theory.

I'm broadly interested in issues of distributive justice in health care. I am particularly interested in producing a plausible account of a luck egalitarian account of distributive justice in health care which I think can deal with some of the typical problems which theories of distributive justice in health care face. I am also more broadly interested in applying ideas and concepts from political theory within bioethics and have written several articles which do just this. Finally I am interested in the impact of new technologies both in terms of what we can distribute, but also in how we conceptualise what should be distributed.

In terms of my irrelevant (At least to this blog) philosophical interests, I maintain a keen interest in philosophy of religion, in particular the argument from evil. I also have a broad interest in research ethics, spurred primarily from doing so much of it. I've been considerably involved in Philosophy for Children when I was in New Zealand, and am aiming (with the aid of a grant from the Wellcome Trust) to continue this involvement here in Northern Ireland (For details see here) Finally I have a long standing interest in accounts of moral status, and trying to come up with what I regard to be a plausible account.

Selected Publications:
'An alternative model for research ethics review at UK universities'
Research Ethics Review. (2006) Vol 2, No 2 47-51.

'Placebos, and moral perils for participants'
Research Ethics Review. (2006) Vol 2, No 2 71-72.

'Proportional Ethical Review and the Identification of Ethical Issues'
Forthcoming in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
http://jme.bmjjournals.com/preprint/hunter.pdf

'Am I my Brothers Gatekeeper? Professional Ethics & the Prioritisation of Health Care' Forthcoming in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

‘Children, Gillick Competency and Consent for Research.’
Coauthored with Professor Barbara Pierscionek. Forthcoming in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

‘Efficiency and the Proposed Reforms to the NHS Research Ethics System’
Forthcoming in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

‘The roles of research ethics committees: implications for membership.’
Forthcoming in Research Ethics Review.

‘Bad Science equals poor not bad ethics’
Cardiff Centre for Ethics, Law & Society website: www.ccels.cardiff.ac.uk http://www.ccels.cf.ac.uk/literature/publications/2006/hunterpaper.pdf
Forthcoming in Law, Ethics & Society, Volume 3, Ashgate.