Dr Alison Toop

Profile

I started as a Teaching Fellow in Medical Ethics for the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science in September 2018. Prior to this I have been a member of the department as both an undergraduate (BA Philosophy) and postgraduate student (PhD Philosophy). I completed my masters (MA Political Philosophy) at the University of York.

Responsibilities

• Early Career Representative on PRHS School Management Group

Research interests

My research interests lie broadly in the areas of moral, political and applied philosophy. My PhD was entitled Marriage and the Political Liberal State: An investigation into the nature of the marital relationship and the legitimacy of a political institution of marriage, which engages more specifically with the philosophy of love and personal relationships, political liberalism, and the recent literature on the political institution of marriage (and alternatives). During this project I became particularly interested in the nature and structure of our social and political worlds.

My current research interests lie in medical ethics, and in particular the ethical issues surrounding reproduction and the concept of care. My current work focuses on the question of whether there is a collective obligation of care for fetuses and interacts with the literature on the ethics of abortion.

Professional memberships

• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Student education

My main teaching responsibilities lie in providing medical ethics teaching in the School of Medicine. I teach on all levels of the MBChB undergraduate programme.

I also teach on undergraduate modules in the School of PRHS.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Aesthetic, Moral and Political Philosophy
• Philosophy