Henk ten Have MD, PhD

Henk A. M. ten Have, MD, PhD, is Director of the Division of Ethics in Sciences and Technology at UNESCO, Paris, France. Professor of Medical Ethics and Director of the Department of Ethics, Philosophy, and History of Medicine in the University Medical Centre Nijmegen, the Netherlands, since 1991, in September 2003 he also joined UNESCO as Director. His work involves public debates concerning euthanasia, drug addiction, genetics, choices in health care, and resource allocation. His research has focused on ethical issues in palliative care, and he has served as coordinator of the European Commission funded Project, 'Palliative Care Ethics.' Serving on numerous editorial boards, Dr. ten Have is editor-in-chief of the recently established journal, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy; has served as co-founder and secretary of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care, and has published Medische Ethiek (1998; revised edition 2003), a textbook for medical curricula. His other recent books include Palliative Care in Europe: Concepts and Policies, Bioethics in a European Perspective, The Ethics of Palliative Care: A European Perspective, Ethics and Alzheimer Disease (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2004), and Death and Medical Power: An Ethical Analysis of Dutch Euthanasia Practice. In UNESCO he is involved in a wide range of international activities in bio-ethics, such as capacity building on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights, particularly regarding the establishment of national bioethics committees and the promotion of ethics teaching (with a current priority for Africa and the Arab Region). With UNESCO he has recently published Environmental Ethics and International Policy and also Nanotechnologies, Ethics, and Politics. Dr. ten Have received his philosophy and medical degrees from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and also worked there as a researcher in the Pathology Laboratory. He also served as a practicing physician in the Municipal Health Services in the City of Rotterdam and as Professor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Limburg, Maastricht.