LONDON — The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has declined to directly respond to questions it withdrew funding from a prominent Catholic bioethics center in England thereby forcing it to close, saying instead that various funding options were explored but were ultimately unsuccessful.

The Anscombe Bioethics Center, an Oxford-based research institute that has engaged with moral questions arising in clinical practice and biomedical research since its founding in 1977, announced on July 2 it was to close at the end of the month due to lack of funds. 

In comments to the Register July 4, a spokesman for the bishops’ conference said that “for a number of years, the governors and director of the Anscombe Bioethics Center have been exploring a range of options to secure the continued work of the center after its funding dropped to unsustainable levels. Sadly, none of these options appeared viable.” 

“As such, the director was informed that a period of consultation would begin regarding future staffing of the center which is inevitably related to the future of the center itself,” the spokesman continued. “That period of consultation will end on July 31, 2025, and it is appropriate for any discussions to remain confidential.”

Referring to online annual finance reports, sources close to the center told the Register July 3 that the bishops’ conference had begun withdrawing funding from the charitable organization in 2021. 

The charitable institution has been highly regarded for its scholarship, its discussions on bioethics, and its defense of the Church’s moral teaching through conferences and the media, including in the Register. The center would often receive enquiries from the public, including from the elderly and the vulnerable, seeking ethical advice. 

The center derives its name from Elizabeth Anscombe, a Catholic philosopher who taught at Oxford and Cambridge, debated with C.S. Lewis, and studied with the Austro-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Anscombe was well-known for her defense of human life and for sparking a contemporary revival of virtue ethics.  

In a July 2 statement announcing the closure, the center’s director, David Albert Jones, said “with immense sadness” the Anscombe Bioethics Center would be shut down on financial grounds. The decision had been made by the center’s corporate trustee, the Catholic Trust for England and Wales (CaTEW), a body of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. 

He said the center’s staff still hoped “some means” might be found to allow it to continue its “vital work of bioethical research and education,” and he expressed his gratitude for the support the center has received over the years. 

The bishops’ conference, which said it was “deeply grateful” for its work, praised its “international reputation” and said the decision to “consult with staff about their future employment was taken solely for financial reasons.”

Thomas Pink, an emeritus professor of philosophy at King’s College London who is a former vice chairman of the Anscombe Center’s governors, said its closure was “very damaging,” especially given its “important role in confronting the very serious threats to human life posed by current legislation.” 

“The center is a vital resource for the reasoned defense of fundamental moral principles,” Pink told the Register July 5, adding that it “allows for laity with expertise to participate in this defense in a way that can involve and appeal to non-Catholics while also supporting the bishops in their mission.” 

“The bishops’ conference should be increasing support for the center at this time, not removing it,” Pink said.

Funding Withdrawn 

Sources close to the center, which is England’s equivalent to the National Catholic Bioethics Center in the United States, said July 3 that a key reason for the closure was a change in how the bishops raised funds for the organization, as well as a decision to withdraw funding by the CaTEW three years ago.

This is evident in the center’s annual accounts, which state that, after recording a year-end deficit of more than £71,000 ($97,000) in 2021 due to the coronavirus emergency, a “phased withdrawal of funding from CaTEW was communicated to the board in May 2022.” This led the governors to try to identify “cost-savings, and to consider and implement both short and longer term fundraising strategies,” the report read.

Specifically, the decision was taken to cease having the center receive a proportion of a nationwide collection from a “Day for Life” fund — a day to fundraise for organizations and charities that protect and defend life. Jones said in his July 2 statement that the center’s “core funding” had come through the Day for Life fund.

The sources close to the center told the Register that the bishops’ conference decided to transfer those donations instead to other “small-scale, one-year projects,” but many parishes were not informed of the change, and so continued to erroneously advertise that donations from the Day for Life fund were going to the center. 

The center’s balance sheet shows donations and grants to the center — its largest source of income — plummeting over that period by nearly two-thirds, from £333,000 ($450,000) in 2020 to £125,000 in 2023 ($170,000).

The sudden announcement of the center’s closure, taken without consulting its staff, also meant that a last-chance emergency fundraising campaign was not possible. 

Multiple sources close to the bioethics charity maintain that some bishops did not like its work and wanted to see it close. 

The Register put these allegations to the bishops’ conference, but they did not address them directly, stressing instead that a “period of consultation” was underway and so discussions would remain “confidential.” 

News of the center’s closure comes less than a month after the House of Commons voted in favor of assisted suicide and to decriminalize abortion up to birth. The center’s staff were contacted to arrange meetings about their risk of redundancy due to the closure of the center the same week those votes took place.  

Jones said in his July 2 statement that even when anti-life legislation has passed over the past 50 years, the center has “maintained a witness [to] the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.” The charity, he said, has been able to “give advice to professionals, carers, and patients about how to act ethically despite the establishment of unethical practices within healthcare.”

As for the assisted-suicide bills that continue to make progress in Scotland and in England and Wales, Jones said that although the center will no longer be in a position to provide new resources, he urged people “to make use of the resources we have already made available and to engage with the Scottish Parliament and with the House of Lords as these bodies continue to debate dangerous and ill-thought-out legislation.”