Professor Richard Huxtable

Summary

Richard’s research primarily concerns legal and ethical issues in end-of-life decision-making, surgery and paediatrics. He is the author of Law, Ethics and Compromise at the Limits of Life: To Treat or Not to Treat? (Routledge-Cavendish, 2012), Euthanasia, Ethics and the Law: From Conflict to Compromise (Routledge-Cavendish, 2007) and (with Dickenson & Parker) The Cambridge Medical Ethics Workbook (CUP, 2nd edn, 2010), plus numerous articles and chapters. His research has been funded by organisations including the Wellcome Trust and the European Commission and he has given invited presentations at the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal College of Surgeons, as well as conferences worldwide.

Biography

Richard Huxtable is Professor of Medical Ethics and Law and Director of the Centre for Ethics in Medicine, in the Medical School at the University of Bristol. Richard edits the Ethics in Clinical Practice section of BMC Medical Ethics. He is a member of:

• The Ethics Committee of the British Medical Association
• The Ethics Committee of the Royal College of General Practitioners
• The ALSPAC Law and Ethics Committee
• The Research Committee of the Institute of Medical Ethics
• Bristol’s Clinical Ethics Advisory Group 
• The UK Clinical Ethics Network Board of Trustees.

Richard is PI on a major Wellcome Trust collaborative project, Balancing Best Interests in Healthcare, Ethics and Law (BABEL). He has held visiting positions at (amongst others) the Ethox Centre in the University of Oxford, the Centre for Biomedical Ethics in the National University of Singapore and the Hastings Center, New York. He tweets at @DrRHuxtable.

Teaching

Richard has an extensive teaching portfolio, and his teaching has been commended by the General Medical Council and Universities UK. Having previously directed the intercalated BSc (Hons) in Bioethics, Richard leads the ethics and law "helical theme" in the MBChB Medicine.

Keywords

• medical law
• medical ethics
• end-of-life decision-making
• surgery
• clinical ethics
• paediatrics
• compromise

Expertise

Research focuses on medical law and ethics, particularly decision-making at the end of life (e.g. assisted dying, withdrawing treatment, advance directives), in surgery (e.g. facial transplantation, separation of conjoined twins), and in relation to children and young people (e.g. children's rights to consent to, and refuse, treatment).

Memberships

Organisations

Bristol Medical School (PHS)

Centres, collaborations and units

• Centre for Ethics in Medicine

Recent publications

• Quinlivan, L, Potokar, J, Davies, R, Huxtable, R, Hawton, K, Gunnell, D & Kapur, N, 2019, ‘Advance decisions to refuse treatment and suicidal behaviour in emergency care: “It’s very much a step into the unknown”’. BJPsych Open.
• Nowland, R, Steeg, S, Quinlivan, L, Cooper, J, Huxtable, R, Hawton, K, Allen, N, Gunnell, D & Kapur, N, 2019, ‘Management of patients with an advance decision and suicidal behaviour: a systematic review’. BMJ Open, vol 9.
• Schofield, G, Brangan, E, Dittborn, M, Huxtable, R & Selman, L, 2019, ‘Real-world Ethics in Palliative Care: Protocol for a Systematic Review of the Ethical Challenges Reported by Specialist Palliative Care Practitioners in their Clinical Practice’. BMJ Open.
• Austin, L & Huxtable, R, 2019, ‘Resolving Disagreements about the Care of Critically Ill Children: Evaluating Existing Processes and Setting the Research Agenda’. in: Parental Rights, Best Interests and Significant Harms: Medical Decision-Making on Behalf of Children Post-Great Ormond Street Hospital v Yates . Oxford University Press
• Birchley, G, Huxtable, R, Ives, J & Blazeby, J, 2019, ‘Have we made progress in identifying (surgical) innovation?’. American Journal of Bioethics.
• Ives, J, Dunn, M, Molewijk, B, Schildmann, J, Bærøe, K, Frith, L, Huxtable, R, Landeweer, E, Mertz, M, Provoost, V, Rid, A, Salloch, S, Sheehan, M, Strech, D, De Vries, M & Widdershoven, G, 2018, ‘Standards of practice in empirical bioethics research: Towards a consensus’. BMC Medical Ethics, vol 19.
• Main, B, McNair, A, Blencowe, N, Avery, K, Macefield, R, Huxtable, R & Blazeby, J, 2018, ‘Core information for consent in surgical oncology: an application of core outcome methodology to define what information is important to patients and clinicians’.
• Huxtable, R, 2018, ‘Clinic, courtroom or (specialist) committee: in the best interests of the critically Ill child?’. Journal of Medical Ethics, vol 44., pp. 471-475
• Frith, L, Hooper, C, Camporesi, S, Douglas, T, Smajdor, A, Nottingham, E, Fritz, Z, Ekberg, M & Huxtable, R, 2018, ‘Institute of Medical Ethics Guidelines for confirmation of appointment, promotion and recognition of UK bioethics and medical ethics researchers’. Journal of Medical Ethics, vol 44., pp. 289-291
• Huxtable, R & Birchley, G, 2017, ‘Seeking Certainty? Judicial Approaches to The (Non-)Treatment of Minimally Conscious Patients’. Medical Law Review, vol 25., pp. 428-455

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system