Professor Rebecca Bennett

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About








I am a Professor in Bioethics at the University of Manchester, UK. After an undergraduate degree in philosophy, I trained and worked as a primary school teacher. However, in 1993, I saw a job advert to work with Professor John Harris, whose work I greatly admired, and I've worked at the University of Manchester ever since.  

I have published widely on diverse issues in bioethics, including the ethical issues around the welfare of future children, prenatal screening, including routine screening for Down syndrome (including the use of non-invasive prenatal testing), access to fertility treatment, preimplantation genetic testing, newborn screening including the addition of whole genome sequencing, antenatal HIV testing, arguments surrounding attempts to eradicate disability including arguments against Procreative Beneficence, ectogenesis, responsibility in pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, cloning, stem cell research, men’s reproductive rights, male pregnancy, sex selection, the role of public consultations in ethics and law and the possibility of ethical compromise.  

Teaching is very important to me, and I have created in-person and online courses designed to help students from all backgrounds engage confidently with ethical questions. In 2002, I designed and launched one of the UK's first fully online postgraduate programmes in Health Care Ethics and Law (LLM/MA/PGCert/PGDip), which continues to attract students globally. In addition, I developed a continuing professional development (CPD) course, Medical Decision-Making: Ethics and Law, accredited by the Royal College of Physicians. I also lead a free, open-access course on FutureLearn: An Introduction to Medical Ethics: The Impact of Disability Screening, designed to engage the wider public in key ethical debates.

My work is grounded in the belief that ethical reflection is essential for responsible healthcare practice and regulation. Through research and teaching, I aim to encourage and enable inclusive conversations about some of the most challenging questions in healthcare and society today.


Media Availability:

Medical ethics particularly reproductive ethics including disability screening, routine prenatal testing for Down Syndrome and newborn screening.

Becki was the ethical advisor on the BBC Documentary 'A World Without Down's Syndrome?'