Academic interests

I am Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Oslo. My work focusses on ethical questions related to medicine, innovation and the life-sciences. My PhD thesis was an analysis of the ethical and legal implications of artificial gametes (sperm and eggs manufactured in the laboratory). I have published widely on this topic, and on many related issues in reproductive ethics. I also have broader interests in a variety of bioethical topics, including morality and nature and the ethics of human interactions with animals and plants. As of September 2026, I am PI of the ERC funded project WritingLife which explores the ethics of AI-enabled synthetic DNA.

Background

I studied philosophy for my first degree, at Edinburgh University. It was here that I first became interested in questions about the interaction between philosophy, science and ethics. I gained my PhD from Imperial College, London. Prior to coming to UiO, I was lecturer in ethics at Norwich Medical School, at the University of East Anglia (UK).