The oldest bioethics research institution in Britain is to shut as a result of lack of funding, it has been announced.
The Anscombe Bioethics Centre began life because the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics in 1977. In 2010 it was re-named in honour of the Catholic philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe, who devoted much of her work to questions surrounding contraception, abortion and euthanasia.
In a press release, the centre said, “It is with immense sadness we announce that staff have recently been informed of ‘the closure of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Oxford’. This decision has been made on financial grounds by the Centre’s Corporate Trustee, the Catholic Trust for England and Wales.”
The centre, while in a roundabout way controlled by the Catholic Church, has long been supported by it in addition to by private donations. Its research and work has all the time attempted to reply bioethical questions of life and death in a way that aligns with Catholic moral teaching.
As well as conducting research, the centre has contributed to public debate through the years and been a crucial source of education on bioethics via seminars, conferences and lectures for clergymen, lay people and health professionals.
The group has also attempted to offer useful resources on bioethical issues, and indeed, following the announcement of its closure, it’s hoped that that is the realm where the centre will leave a considerable legacy.
In its statement it said, “It is the earnest hope of staff on the Centre that some means could also be found to proceed to make available the resources that the Centre has generated, and likewise to proceed the vital work of bioethical research and education that fully respects the dignity of the human person.”
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, responding to the news, said that “a wide selection of national and international options to secure the Centre’s continuation, including university partnerships and skilled fundraising support, were explored”.
“Unfortunately, the varied approaches proved unable to secure the Centre’s future,” it said.
It praised the work of the centre, saying, “We want to further express gratitude for the internationally renowned work of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre and for all those that have served its mission over the past 48 years.
“The Bishops will proceed passionately to defend the intrinsic dignity of human life from conception to natural death, and, where appropriate, will seek the advice of with leading Catholic bioethicists on matters of shared concern,” it said.
