ABOUT ME & MY RESEARCH


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Kort vitenskapelig CV

• Doktorgrad (dr.art.) i politisk filosofi. Professor i filosofi ved Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet (NTNU) i Trondheim, også tilkjent professorkompetanse i medisinsk etikk. Tidligere forsker i Kreftforeningen (prosjekt om døende kreftpasienters syn på eutanasi og legeassistert selvmord). 122 publikasjoner, inkludert i The Lancet Oncology (om kontinuerlig dyp lindrende sedering i livets sluttfase), Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine (kapittel om dødshjelp og palliasjon i tre påfølgende utgaver), Journal of Medical Ethics (JME), boken Euthanasia and Law in Europe (kapitlet om Skandinavia), Palliative Medicine, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Annals of Palliative Medicine, BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, Palliasjon. Nordisk lærebok (kapittel om dødshjelp og palliasjon i to påfølgende utgaver), Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening, Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift, Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift. Forfatter av læreboken Vitenskap, etikk og politikk og fag-, lære- og debattboken Dødshjelp – begreper, definisjoner, klinikk og etikk.

• Norwegian, born January 26th, 1960 in Haugesund, city on south-western coast of Norway.

• Ph.D. (Norwegian dr.art.) in political philosophy, 1997, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
• M.A. (Norwegian mag.art.) in philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway, 1988; includes subjects history and comparative politics.

• 122 publications, including articles and book chapters in The Lancet Oncology; Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, 4th, 5th and 6th edition (Oxford University Press); Journal of Medical Ethics (JME); Euthanasia and Law in Europe (Hart Publishing, Oxford); Palliative Medicine; BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care; Progress in Palliative Care; European Journal of Palliative Care; Journal of Pain and Symptom Management; Annals of Palliative Medicine; The SAGE Handbook of Health Care Ethics (SAGE Publications); The Patient’s Wish to Die. Research, Ethics, and Palliative Care (Oxford University Press); The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association; author of the textbook Science, Ethics and Politics (in Norwegian) and (also in Norwegian) the book Assisted Dying – Concepts, Definitions, and Clinical and Ethical Matters.

• From 1992 to 1996 I was Doctoral Fellow, The Ethics Programme, The Research Council of Norway. Subsequent to receiving a Ph.D. in political philosophy in 1997, on Robert Nozick (1938–2002) and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) – see my homepage's entry on Nozick for further detail – my research was since 1999 within medical ethics (a subcategory of applied ethics); however, I left this field mid 2020. Currently my research is within experimental moral philosophy.

• As a Postdoctoral Fellow with The Norwegian Cancer Society, I carried out research on the relationship between palliative care and assisted dying, which included conducting interviews with terminally ill cancer patients who were inpatients at a palliative medicine unit about their attitudes towards, and wishes for, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Medical supervisor was oncologist and professor of palliative medicine Stein Kaasa, with whom I have several publications.

• September 2017 to July 2018 I was Visiting Professor, University of Glasgow, Scotland, participating in the research project «Rejection, collaboration or integration? A comparative analysis of palliative care and assisted dying in three locations: Oregon, USA; Flanders, Belgium; and Québec, Canada». This project ended March 2020, and was carried out by members of the University of Glasgow End of Life Studies Group – headed by Professor David Clark (see also https://davidgrahamclark.net and https://twitter.com/dumfriesshire) – located on Dumfries Campus in Southern Scotland.

• Across the years, my research within medical ethics also dealt with ethical and clinical issues related to withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in the seriously ill (non-treatment decisions; NTDs); ethical, clinical and philosophical aspects of the last-resort treatment strategy terminal/palliative sedation in the imminently dying; the concept of futile treatment; the intersections between health law and medical ethics; and the ethics of organ donation.

Former Positions

• Visiting Professor, Glasgow End of Life Studies Group, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Dumfries Campus, Scotland, UK.
• Author of academic textbook, employed by publishing company Fagbokforlaget.
• Visiting Research Fellow, International Observatory on End of Life Care (IOELC), Lancaster University, Lancaster, England, UK.
• Head, Unit for Medical Ethics, Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU.
• Postdoctoral Fellow, the NGO Norwegian Cancer Society.
• Administrative head, Department of Philosophy, NTNU.
• Doctoral Fellow, The Ethics Programme, The Research Council of Norway.

• Sat on committee of the Norwegian Medical Association that worked out a new Guideline on palliative sedation at the end of life.
• Former Chair, The Ethics Task Force on Palliative Care and Euthanasia of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC).
• Former member of the Norwegian Government's National Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics (NEM).

• Was supervisor for five candidates who defended their Ph.D. thesis at NTNU; three in philosophy (main supervisor) and two in social anthropology (co-supervisor).
• Was second opponent at defence of dr.philos. thesis in philosophy at University of Oslo, Norway.

• More than 100 lectures as invited speaker at international congresses and institutions across Europe; at courses for medical doctors from specialities palliative medicine, oncology, geriatrics, neurosurgery, neurology and anaesthesiology and for medical students and nurses, in Norway and Sweden; and in different popular science settings in Norway.

• 91 feature articles in several of Norway's largest nation-wide newspapers, as well as in local newspapers.
• 75 interviews in magazines and on national TV and radio in Norway and Sweden.