#1 The Speakers
Every year SPUC makes sure that the speakers we have are first rate and the topics are varied and engaging. This year's set of speakers is no exception. Below is this year's list of speakers with a short biography.
Professor Patrick Pullicino. Topic: Liverpool Care Pathway
Patrick Pullicino is Professor of Clinical Neuroscience and Consultant
Neurologist in the East Kent Hospitals Trust. His research expertise is
centred on cerebrovascular disease including MRI and ultrasound imaging. He was
recently a Principal Investigator in a US National Institutes of Health
research programme and continues this work in the UK In December 2012 Professor
Pullicino made headlines following a lecture on the Liverpool Care Pathway,
given at the Royal Society of Medicine in London
Dr Lisa Nolland. Topic: Sex Education
Dr Lisa Nolland has worked with children, adolescents and families for
30 years in the UK.
She obtained her PhD at the University
of Bristol, with a thesis
on history, sexuality, culture, and religion. Lisa convenes the Working Party
on the Sexualisation of Children, Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection
Group. She wrote A Victorian Feminist Christian: Josephine Butler, the
Prostitutes and God (2004) and wrote and edited God, Gays and the Church: Human
Sexuality and Experience in Christian Thinking (2008). She serves as web
consultant for Anglican-Mainstream.
John Smeaton. Topic: Pro-life Campaigns
John Smeaton became involved in SPUC after graduating, when he established a
branch in south London
in 1974. He has worked full-time for SPUC for 33 years. John became director of
SPUC in the UK
in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. He was elected
vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN
conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen,
Beijing, Istanbul
and Rome, he helped coordinate more than 150
pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo,
Istanbul and Rome.
Ira Winter. Topic: Natural Family Planning
Ira Winter (RN BSc MSc CFCP) is fully trained as a Creighton Model
FertilityCare practitioner and has been managing the Life FertilityCare
service since 2007.
Fiorella Nash. Topic: Maternal Mortality
Fiorella Nash is a researcher and
writer, specialising in pro-life issues from a feminist perspective. She holds
a BA and M.Phil in English from Cambridge
University and worked as
a public affairs assistant to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor before joining
SPUC. Fiorella is also a published novelist and biographer, writing as Fiorella
De Maria. Her most recent published novel, Poor Banished Children was published by
Ignatius Press in 2011. Fiorella's forthcoming novel, Do Not Harm, will be published in March 2013 by Ignatius.
Anthony Ozimic. Topic: Political Campaigning
Anthony Ozimic has been SPUC’s communications
manager since summer 2009. Prior to that he was SPUC’s political secretary from
2000 onwards. He is often called upon to comment on behalf of SPUC on
television and radio, in print and online. He is also SPUC’s webmaster,
Facebook group administrator and Tweeter. He holds a Masters degree in
bioethics from St Mary’s University
College, Twickenham.
Dr. Helen Watt
Dr Helen Watt BA, PhD (Edin) is Senior Research Fellow at the Anscombe
Bioethics Centre. From 2001-2010 she was Director of the Linacre
Centre (as the Anscombe Centre was formerly known). From 1992-2001 she
held the post of Research Fellow at the Centre; from 1993-1996 she was
also Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Her research
interests include reproductive ethics and action theory, particularly
issues of cooperation and complicity. Current projects include a book on
the pregnancy relationship, tentatively titled Childbearing: the Ethics
of Pregnancy, Abortion, and Childbirth.
Dr. Helen Watt
James Bogle. Topic: Euthanasia
James Bogle is an experienced barrister who was called the Bar in 1991. He has acted on SPUC's behalf in the high pro-life court case of Diane Pretty. James is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Lecturer in Medical Law at St George's Hospital Medical School. He is an author; and former chairman and current vice-chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain.
James Bogle is an experienced barrister who was called the Bar in 1991. He has acted on SPUC's behalf in the high pro-life court case of Diane Pretty. James is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Lecturer in Medical Law at St George's Hospital Medical School. He is an author; and former chairman and current vice-chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain.
Katherine Hampton: SPUC pro-life School’s Talk
Katherine has worked for SPUC for 18 years, originally heading up its Youth
and Student Division. She worked for many years in SPUC’s education department,
and is currently SPUC’s political assistant. Katherine speaks in dozens of
schools and colleges every year.
