Gert Helgesson

I am professor in medical ethics at the Department of learning, informatics, management and ethics (LIME), Karolinska Institutet.

I studied practical philosophy (ethics) at Uppsala University and defended my thesis on value assumptions in microeconomics in 2002. Since 2002 I have worked with medical ethics, first in Uppsala and then at Karolinska Institutet, in particular with ethical matters relating to medical research, but also clinical medical ethics. I became associate professor (docent) at KI 2008 and full professor 2015.

My research group is interested in interdisciplinary collaboration, so do not hesitate to contact me or my colleagues if you want to explore common interests.

My research is dedicated to medical ethics, which includes both empirical and philosophical work on ethical matters in medicine. I do research in both main fields of medical ethics, i.e., clinical medical ethics (healthcare ethics) and medical research ethics. As a medical ethicist, I have a quite broad general competence in doing applied ethics, that is applying the ethics toolbox to a variety of areas. This means I can be open to collaboration with researchers from many different fields. In collaboration, we can identify and analyze ethical aspects of clinical and research ethical issues at hand.

Presently, I participate in a project on the best interest of the child, focusing on decisions concerning children in social care. This is a collaboration between researchers in medical ethics, law, and social work. I also work on authorship issues in citizen science, (non-standard applications of) plagiarism, patient-centred care and shared decision-making, rational suicides, and ethical issues on live tissue training.

I have teaching experience in ethics, medical ethics, research ethics, and philosophy of science. I presently mainly teach research ethics, to master students, doctoral students, and doctoral supervisors. But I also participate in physicians' specialist training, with days exploring clinical ethical issues.