University of Oxford

Faculty Member, Public Health

Lecturer in Health and Social Care Ethics

The Ethox Centre and Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

About

I am engaged in research and teaching in health care ethics, social care ethics, and research ethics.

My journey into practical ethics comes via brief sojourns in human geography and academic psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, where I graduated from my PhD in 2009 with a thesis on surrogate decision-making in care homes for adults with profound intellectual impairments.

I am now based at the University of Oxford's Ethox Centre, and have a broad range of research interests in the ethical, philosophical, legal, social and political dimensions of health care, social care and research. I draw upon - and seek to develop - legal, philosophical and social scientific methods of analysis in my work. My research activities have been funded by the Ethox Foundation, the Lien Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Japanese Global Centres of Excellence Programme, the University of Oxford, and the National University of Singapore.

A major focus of my current work is the development of a programme of ethics research projects, training initiatives and ethics support activities that aim to improve ethical standards in health and social care settings for vulnerable adults. This has led me to devote a significant amount of my time to studying the ethics of community-based care and support.

Projects on-the-go include:
- the ethical dimensions of law, policy and practice in adult and child protection
- the use of treatment pressures in community mental health care
- resource allocation in publicly-funded adult social services
- 'everyday' ethical decision-making in long-term community-based care contexts
- the use of assistive technologies in health and social care
- models of ethics support for non-clinical care settings
- human vulnerability and obligation
- research ethics and governance in the social sciences
- methodological strategies for interrogating bioethical questions

I have co-responsibility for teaching the medical ethics and law curriculum to clinical students in Oxford University's Medical School. I also regularly design, convene and deliver training events and workshops in ethics, law and research methods for health and social care practitioners, managers, university researchers, and members of clinical and research ethics committees.

My university webpage is available here: http://www.ethox.ox.ac.uk/people/michael-dunn/

If you would like copies of my papers, or want to follow up any aspect of my work, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Contact Information