Rate My Professor D Gareth Jones

D. Gareth Jones is an Emeritus Professor of Anatomy at the University of Otago, where he specializes in anatomy and bioethics within the Medicine faculty. He holds degrees including BSc, MBBS, MD, and DSc. Prior to joining Otago, he taught at the University of Western Australia. In 1983, Jones became Professor and Head of the Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, a position he held until 2004. He conceived the Bioethics Centre, which was established in 1988, and served as its Director from 1988 to 1990 and again from 2010 to 2012. Between 2005 and 2010, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International). He was appointed Emeritus Professor in 2013 and continues active involvement in research.

Jones's research focuses on bioethics, with special emphasis on the ethical dimensions of anatomy practice, body donation for medical education, use of cadavers, consent issues, reproductive technologies, stem cells, and emerging medical technologies. His earlier work addressed neuroscience topics such as cerebral cortex ultrastructure and synapses. He has authored 248 publications, garnering over 6,000 citations, significantly impacting anatomy and bioethics fields. Key books include Speaking for the Dead: Insights into the Medical Use of Human Cadavers (2000, revised 2009 and 2017 with Maja Whitaker), The Peril and Promise of Medical Technology (2014), Medical Ethics (4th edition, 2005, co-authored with Alastair Campbell and Grant Gillett), Bioethics: When the Challenges of Life Become Too Difficult (2007), and his autobiography At the Margins: A Life in Biomedical Science, Faith, and Ethical Dilemmas (2022). Recent publications cover religious and cultural aspects of body donation, ethical frameworks for public dissections, and ethical concerns with skeleton collections. For his contributions to science and tertiary education, he was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2004.