Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 75(4) November 2025
Correspondence
Closure of the Anscombe Centre
Dear Sir,
Like many others, we were shocked to learn of the closure of the Anscombe Centre: an institution whose decades-long contribution to bioethics, most recently under Professor David Albert Jones as director, has been incalculable. In these troubled times for medicine and society, the question of support for bioethics of the kind the Anscombe Centre provided – critical and tradition-friendly – now arises in all its urgency.
Two of us had the privilege of working for the Anscombe Centre before setting up (or in one case, joining) the Bios Centre, an independent medical ethics charity. Bios is not Christian as such, but our researchers whether Catholic (core staff) or from other Christian denominations (research associates) take inspiration from the Hippocratic tradition in exploring bioethical issues and approaches. Bios offers a dynamic new platform for academic research and dialogue, both at the national and international level. We are proud of our record in terms of publications, presentations and less formal interactions behind the scenes.
Bios is very grateful for the generous support we have received so far from, in particular, two sympathetic organisations, and also from individual donors. However, our position remains precarious and now more than ever we feel the urgency to remain active in order to serve our society which is facing significant bioethical challenges. Bioethics is critically important – concerning as it does, issues of life, death, care, conscience, respect – but, as the Anscombe Centre very sadly experienced, it is difficult to secure funding.
Should a second bioethics centre fail for lack of resources, this will further deprive health care practitioners, pastors and concerned citizens of help in stormy times ahead. Bioethics takes time and training: it is not easily practised alongside other demanding commitments.
If you care about good health care practice, and the attentive study and dialogue in ethics that protects it, please reach out to us. The Bios Centre website and our contact details, including a donations page, can be found at www.bioscentre.org - we hope to see you there!
Yours sincerely
Dr Anthony McCarthy, Dr Helen Watt, Dr Ilaria
Bertini, Bios Centre, London
A shortened version of this was first published in the Catholic Herald.