Journal of Clinical Research & Bioethics

Guy A M Widdershoven

Guy A M Widdershoven
Professor, Department of Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine
VU University Medical Centre, Netherlands

Biography

Guy AM Widdershoven 1954 is a Professor of Ethics of Health Care at Maastricht University. He has studied philosophy mathematics and political science at the University of Amsterdam from 1972-1980. The subject of his PhD was philosophy of action and done in 1987. He has been Associate Professor at the Department of Health Care Ethics and Philosophy of the University of Maastricht since 1989 and Full Professor since 1996. In 1998 he was a visiting professor at Ethox Centre for Ethics and Communication Skills Oxford. Since 2001 he is president of EACME European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics. Since 2004 he is scientific director of CAPHRI Care and Public Health Research Institute Maastricht University. Since 2005 he is scientific director of the national research school CaRe Netherlands School of Primary care Research.

Research Interest

His main theoretical interest is to contribute to the development of alternative approaches to bioethics (hermeneutic ethics, narrative ethics, ethics of care, empirical ethics). He supervises research projects on ethics of chronic care (care for the elderly, psychiatry, care for people with a mental disability). In collaboration with Dr. Tineke Abma, he set up many projects combining dialogical ethics and responsive evaluation in health care. Together with Dr. Bert Molewijk he set up a Dutch network on clinical ethics and moral deliberation, and also a European network on clinical ethics. Together with psychiatrists he coordinated a nationwide program in The Netherlands to reduce coercion and constraint in psychiatry. He supervised projects concerning the theory and methodology of empirical ethics. He also supervised projects on ethical aspects of care around the end of life, particularly palliative care and euthanasia. He has organized many international conferences on ethical issues in healthcare. He published articles in international journals and edited various international volumes.