Research Overview

Stephen Wilkinson is Distinguished Professor of Bioethics at Lancaster University. Much of his work is about reproductive ethics and the regulation of reproductive technologies, especially the ethics of selective reproduction (practices that involve choosing between different possible future people). A book on this topic (Choosing Tomorrow’s Children, Oxford University Press) was published in 2010, supported by grants from the AHRC and Wellcome. Since then, particular interests have included ethical issues raised by uterus transplantation; non-invasive pre-natal testing; mitochondrial replacement; new sources of eggs, embryos, and sperm; genome editing; surrogacy; and public funding for infertility treatments. Another abiding interest is the commercial exploitation of the human body, which was the subject of his first book, Bodies for Sale (Routledge, 2003).

From 2013 to 2021, Stephen was the joint leader (with Prof Rosamund Scott) of a large Wellcome-funded research programme about the Ethics and Regulation of Human Reproductive Donation. He is currently leading another large Wellcome project called The Future of Human Reproduction: transformative agendas and methods for the Humanities and Social Sciences, a collaboration with colleagues from Design, English Literature, Law, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology. He has previously held research grants from the AHRB, AHRC, British Academy, and Leverhulme Trust.

In 2024, Stephen was appointed as a Council member on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. He also served on the Council's Expert Working Group on stem cell-based embryo models, which reported in November 2024.

He is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, the UKRI Talent Peer Review College, and the editorial boards of Bioethics, Clinical Ethics, and Res Publica.

PhD Supervision Interests

Human Reproduction - ethics and regulation of