Rebecca Bennett

Professor Rebecca Bennett ([email protected]), is Professor in Bioethics has taught bioethics since 1993 and has published widely on diverse issues in bioethics. In 2002 she devised and launched the innovative distance learning LLM/MA/PGCert and PG Diploma programmes in Health Care Ethics and Law and she continues to be the Programme Director of these programmes.  From 2009 to 2014 she was the Programme Director for the PhD in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence – another innovative programme that bases a doctoral thesis around published papers.  She also devised and runs a Continuing Professional Development online course in Medical Decision-Making: Ethics and Law accredited by the Royal College of Physicians.

Becki has published widely on diverse issues in bioethics including the ethics of screening for Down syndrome including NIPT, the ethics of blood spot screening in newborns, the ethical treatment of transgender children and adolescents, antenatal HIV testing, assisted reproductive technologies, preimplantation genetic testing, genetic testing in pregnancy, arguments surrounding attempts to eradicate disability including arguments against Procreative Beneficence, responsibility in pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, cloning, stem cell research, men’s reproductive rights, male pregnancy, ectogenesis, selective treatment of infants, sex selection, the role of public consultations in ethics and law and the possibility of ethical compromise.

Some of Becki's research is available via open access including her recent book with Bloomsbury:

Open Access book:

The Welfare of Future Children: Reproductive Ethics and Disability Screening (London, Bloomsbury, 2025) Available as a free PDF download.

Selected Open Access papers:

‘Why we Must Change the Bioethical Terminology around So-Called “Lives Not Worth Living,” and “Worthwhile” and “Unworthwhile” Lives’ Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, published online 2025.

‘Reasons, Persons, Eugenics and an Argument in Favour of Gene Editing’ American Journal of Bioethics, 2024, 24 [8] 37-40.

'Can routine screening for alcohol consumption in pregnancy be ethically and legally justified?' Journal of Medical Ethics, 2022.

'When Intuition is Not Enough. Why the Principle of Procreative Beneficence Must Work Much Harder to Justify Its Eugenic Vision', Bioethics, 2013. 

'The Fallacy of the Principle of Procreative Beneficence' Bioethics, 2009.

Media Availability:

Medical ethics particularly reproductive ethics including disability screening, routine prenatal testing for Down Syndrome and newborn screening.

Becki was the ethical advisor on the BBC Documentary 'A world without Down's Syndrome?'

Recent blogs include:

With Catherine Bowden ‘Why we must resist proposals for routine screening for alcohol in pregnancy’

Why we must resist proposals for routine screening for alcohol in pregnancy

A world without Down's Syndrome?  is the non-invasive test for Down's a positive medical breakthrough or a tool for eugenics?

What's wrong with routine antenatal testing for Down's? 

Discussion Group:

Visit Becki’s healthcare ethics and law discussion group on Facebook at:

http://manchester.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6523616651&ref=nf

Courses:

LLM/MA/PGCert/PGDiploma in Healthcare Ethics and Law (fully online programmes)

Continuing Professional Development online course in ethics and law: Medical Decision-Making: Ethics and Law. Accredited by the Royal College of Physicians.

Free Futurelearn online MOOC An Introduction to Medical Ethics: The Impact of Disability Screening.

The ethics of screening for Down’s syndrome including NIPT, the ethics of blood spot screening in newborns, the ethical treatment of transgender children and adolescents, antenatal HIV testing, assisted reproductive technologies, prelimplatation genetic diagnosis, genetic testing in pregnancy, arguments surrounding attempts to eradicate disability including arguments against Procreative Beneficence, responsibility in pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, cloning, stem cell research, men’s reproductive rights, male pregnancy, ectogenesis, selective treatment of infants, sex selection, the role of public consultations in ethics and law and the possibility of ethical compromise.

Teaching:

Becki is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

She was awarded a teaching excellence award by the University of Manchester in 2022 for Educational Leadership, Flexible Learning and Digital Delivery.

From its launch in February 2002 until January 2009 she was Programme Director for the MA/LLM/Postgrad Diploma in Healthcare Ethics and Law by Distance Learning. This innovative programme allows students to study for an MA, LLM or Postgraduate Diploma or Certificate without attending the university. This programme was one of the first fully distance learning programmes in the University and in this area of study.  Becki was responsible for developing these programmes and their novel mode of delivery.  

In 2009 Becki launched a number of short online CPD courses in healthcare ethics and law which provide training for healthcare professionals http://www.law.manchester.ac.uk/connect/cpd/

Becki is very actively involved in developing new methods of online delivery both in the School of Law and the wider University and sees a central part of her role in developing online and distance learning.

Contact Becki for a sample of the distance learning materials or more information about that courses we offer.

Becki is currently the Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning (Distance Learning) for the Faculty of Humanities.