The aim of this project is to investigate how the Church of England has engaged with selected public policy debates in relation to biomedical ethics since the 1960s. What has it been aiming to achieve, and why? What strategies has it adopted, and why? What effect has its public engagement had on policy outcomes and public perceptions? How has that public engagement been reflected in the media? By concentrating on one Christian denomination and a narrow range of ethical and policy issues, it will be possible to produce a focused case study of the involvement of faith communities in public ethical and policy debates in contemporary Britain.\n\nThe interest of this research lies in the fact that the role of religious groups in the policy process in contemporary Britain is highly contested. This is illustrated by the debates leading up to the passing of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (2008): the Select Committee examining the legislation made particular efforts to engage representatives of faith groups in the debate; yet at the same time, some contributions to the debate and some media comment expressed considerable suspicion of religious involvement and influence.\n\nThe involvement of religious traditions in policymaking in liberal societies has been much discussed in the academic literature in both political theory and public theology. Less attention, though, has been paid to the ways in which religious groups have actually engaged with public debates, how their modes of engagement compare with the various possibilities set out in the academic literature and what effects their involvement has had.\n\nThis research will begin to fill that gap, by focusing on three controversial areas in biomedical ethics that have been the subject of policymaking and legislation between the 1960s and the present: abortion, human fertilisation and embryology, and assisted dying. Over that period, the Church of England has had a high level of engagement with these issues. The aims and strategies it has adopted, and the rationales for those aims and strategies, will be investigated through a study of archival sources documenting that engagement and interviews with key personnel. The effects of its public engagement on these issues will be assessed by analysing Parliamentary records (including Hansard and committee reports), selected media coverage, and empirical survey data on public perceptions of the bioethical issues being studied and of the churches' involvement in public life. In the light of these analyses, further empirical survey research will be conducted to investigate more specifically the public impact of the Church's public engagement with the issues being studied.\n\nThe findings of this project are expected to offer new insights into the engagement of faith groups in public debate and the political process. As such, they will be of use to academics working in public theology, bioethics and politics, to those responsible for faith communities' engagement with public issues, and to policymakers interested in the role of religious traditions in the policy process.\n