Baroness Ruth Deech on "Ethics, Jews & Embryos"
Monday 24 November 2008 at 7.45PM
Where: in the Bloomstein Hall, Western Marble Arch Synagogue, 32 Great Cumberland Place, London, W1H 7TN
Admission: by payment at the door (members) £8.00, (non-members) £10.00. Includes refreshments
To reserve your place email: marion@mppr.me.ukor phone 020 7723 9333
In 1994 Ruth Deech was appointed chair of the UK Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority. a national committee charged with monitoring all IVF clinics and laboratories in the UK, and with approving assisted reproductive treatments and embryo research. In the period of her chairmanship to 2002 the HFEA oversaw the introduction of preimplantation genetic diagnosis and stem cell research.
Ruth Deech is a recognised authority on human fertilisation issues and is regularly appears on programmes such as "Today" most recently for comments on the proposed amendments to the abortion bill.
In June 2008 the Jewish Chronicle published a report on plans by Baroness Deech to sue the Polish Government for compensation for property owned by her family before the Second World War. The article was reprinted in the Polish media including a local Krakow paper, Baroness Deech went to Poland recently to reclaim her family silver cutlery which had been hidden by a local Polish artist when the family were deported.
Baroness Deech studied law at Oxford University and also obtained her MA from Brandeis University. She spent two years teaching law at the University of Windsor, Canada, before becoming a lecturer at Oxford University. She taught jurisprudence, family, property, international and constitutional law until she was elected Principal of St Anne's College, from 1991 to 2004. She was also appointed to a four year term as a Governor of the BBC in 2002 and is currently Visiting Professor at Gresham College in London .