Dr Jennifer Gunning

Dr Jennifer Gunning, bio-ethicist, 3 August 1944 – 14 January 2010. 

Cardiff Law School are very sad to report the death of former Senior Research Fellow, Dr Jennifer Gunning. Jenny was a research consultant in Bioethics and Science Affairs, and played an instrumental role in the establishment of the web-based 'virtual' Cardiff Centre for Ethics, Law and Society (CCELS), hosted by the Law School.

Jenny originally trained as a scientist, and was Secretary to the BBSRC. Over the years, she became an expert on the regulatory and legislative aspects of assisted reproduction, following her term as secretary to the Voluntary Licensing Authority for Human in vitro Fertilisation and Embryology, which regulated human embryo research and IVF before statutory regulation was introduced by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.

She wrote extensively on bioethical issues, and had an international reputation, regularly presenting papers at conferences in the EU and further afield, and serving on ethical review panels for the European Commission. Jenny also participated in several EU networks and consortia and was a member of the RCOG working group on umbilical cord blood banking, whose report was published in 2006. With Professor Soren Holm (formerly of Cardiff Law School), she edited four volumes of Ethics, Law and Society (published by Ashgate), which brought together items posted on the CCELS website and longer papers and essays. She also acted as reviewer and guest editor for the International Medicine and Law Journal.

Jenny was a delight to know. Always lively and enthusiastic and always sharp and decisive, she was a brilliant catalyst for those working with her, generous with her time to discuss issues and full of ideas and inspiration. She was great fun and someone who always enlivened any discussion.

Her death is a great loss, both to the Law School, and to the field of bioethics, and she will be sorely missed.

She leaves her husband Peter, two sons and daughters in law, and four grandchildren.

Professor Gillian Douglas, Head of Cardiff Law School