I have worked as Full Professor of Care Ethics at the University of Groningen and the UMCG till January 2023.
As a professor of ethics, I am interested in developing a ‘practice-based ethics’: an ethics developed from the bottom up and from within. Moral stories (narratives) of what people themselves consider important and significant form the basis of normative analysis and reflection.
As a part of my work as a philosopher-ethicist , I have been a member of several committees. I was a member of the Health Council of the Netherlands and was a member of the Euthanasia Review Committee. I have also been chairman of the KNMG Palliative Sedation Directive.
I think it is important to take social responsibility as a philosopher and therefore I have been and still am a member of the supervisory board of several care institutions.
I was part of the beginning and development of Care Ethics in the Netherlands (earlier 90’s) together with Joan Tronto, Selma Sevenhuijsen, Henk Manschot and Annelies van Heijst.
With much pleasure I have been the program leader on Family Ethics (2014-2019) with Hilde Lindemann, Jamie Lindemann, Jackie Leach Scully, Janice Mclaughlin, Christian Munthe and Ulrik Kihlbom. See our latest publication here: What about the Family?
My motto: you only see the world from your own perspective. Remember there are many others.