Professor David Albert Jones, research fellow in bioethics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and committee secretary of the new Augustine Bioethics Network, said, “There has never been a greater need for serious ethical reflection on healthcare: on issues such as assisted suicide, conscientious objection, resources allocation, gene editing, abortion and the use of artificial intelligence.

“Currently, the majority of academic bioethics mixes a focus on autonomy with utility. In contrast, the Augustine Bioethics Network has been established to discover and give voice to a more profound vision of bioethics that encompasses both the dignity and the vulnerability of every human person, a vision it finds in the great philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo.”