Presentation to start: 6.00pm (Refreshments at 5.30 pm in the Foyer)     

Prof Richard Ashcroft is professor of bioethics in the law school at Queen Mary, University of London.  He spent 10 years teaching medical ethics in the medical schools of Queen Mary, Imperial College, and Bristol University.  His current work is on the relationship between bioethics and human rights, with a particular emphasis on HIV in the developing world.

Summary of Event:

In his presentation Professor Ashcroft will look at our obligations concerning the medical treatment in primary and secondary care of non-EU migrants to the UK.  In particular, he will discuss whether we have moral obligations to treat failed asylum seekers.  

Current guidance from the Department of Health suggests that NHS doctors and health services should only provide such treatment on a fee-paying basis, save in dire emergencies.  This raises a number of moral problems.

· Is there a duty in medical ethics to care for a patient in need independently of their ability to pay?

· Are rules of the kind proposed by the Department of Health a violation of human rights to life and to health?

· Or do we only owe a duty within the NHS to „members‰ of the system?

· And can it be appropriate to use restrictions on access to medical care as a lever to encourage unlawful migrants to leave, and to discourage potential migrants from coming?