Research interests

Public health ethics: vaccination, newborn screening, antibiotic resistance, digital technology

Ethics of Information: big data ethics, social epistemology

Informed Consent in law and ethics: epistemic consent, parental consent

'Genethics': whole-genome sequencing, genetic engineering

The role of normative theory in an interdisciplinary context

Short CV

Niels Nijsingh is a public health ethicist, with a particular interest in the rights of the individual in an institutional context. In 2012, he obtained his PhD at the University of Utrecht, with a thesis on informed consent in the context of newborn screening practices. He has taught applied ethics as a lecturer in Utrecht, as well as at the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam). From 2015 until 2017, Niels worked for Be Informed, a software company that has developed an automated decision making platform. From 2017 until 2019 he worked as a Postdoc at FloV and the Centre of Antibiotic Resistance Research (CARe) at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) on a project on antibiotic resistance. He currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU). He has worked as an editor for Podium voor Bio-Ethiek, a Dutch journal on bioethics for ten years.

Selected publications

Book chapters

Nijsingh, N., Larsson, D. J., de Fine Licht, K., & Munthe, C. (2020). Justifying Antibiotic Resistance Interventions: Uncertainty, Precaution and Ethics. In: Jamrozik, E. & Selgelid, M. (eds.). Ethics and Drug Resistance: Collective Responsibility for Global Public Health. Cham: Springer.

Nijsingh, N, Juth, N. & Munthe, C. (2017), “The Ethics of Screening”, in: International Encyclopedia of Public Health.

Nijsingh, Niels (2009), “Newborn Screening and Choosing Whether to Know”, in: Dawson, A., The Philosophy of Public Health, pp. 111-21.

Nijsingh & Düwell (2009), “Interdisciplinarity, Applied Ethics and Social Science”, in: Sollie & Düwell,m Evaluating New Technologies, pp. 79-93.

Nijsingh, Niels (2007), “Informed Consent and the Expansion of Newborn Screening”, in: Dawson & Verweij, Ethics, Prevention, and Public Health, 198-212.

Peer-reviewed publications

Nijsingh, N., van Bergen, A., & Wild, V. (2020). "Applying a precautionary approach to mobile contact tracing for Covid-19: The value of reversibility." Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 1-5.

Nijsingh, N., Jansky, B., Marckmann, G. & Kühlmeyer, K. (2020). „Mind the Gap: How Should We Translate Specific Ethical Norms Into Interventions?“ The American Journal of Bioethics 20 (4): 89-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2020.1730500 

Nijsingh, Niels, and Anne van Bergen. (2019). "Epistemic architecture: steering the public perception of the messy problem of antibiotic resistance." Emerging Topics in Life Sciences 3(6), 737-740.

Nijsingh, Niels, Christian Munthe, and DG Joakim Larsson. (2019). "Managing pollution from antibiotics manufacturing: charting actors, incentives and disincentives." Environmental Health 18(1), 1-5.

Munthe, C., Nijsingh, N., de Fine Licht, K., & Joakim Larsson, D. G. (2019). Health‐related Research Ethics and Social Value: Antibiotic Resistance Intervention Research and Pragmatic Risks. Bioethics, 33(3), 335-342.

Munthe, C., El-Alti, L., Hartvigsson, T., & Nijsingh, N. (2018). Disputing with patients in person-centered care. Journal of Argumentation in Context, 7(2), 231-244.

Nijsingh, N. (2016). Whole genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool: Participant-centered consent. Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, 2(3), 407-415.

Nijsingh, N. (2016) "Consent to epistemic interventions: a contribution to the debate on the right (not) to know." Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 19(1): 103-10.

Nijsingh, N. (2013), “Krabbe Newborn Screening: The Issue of Informed Consent”, Public Health Ethics, 6 (1), 126 -8.

Nijsingh (2012), “Blurring Boundaries”, American Journal of Bioethics, 12 (10), 26-7.

Detmar, S., Dijkstra, N., Nijsingh, N., Rijnders, M., Verweij, M. & Hosli, E. (2008), "Parental Opinions about the Expansion of the Neonatal Screening Programme", Community Genetics 11 (1).

Detmar, S. Hosli, E., Dijkstra, N., Nijsingh, N., Rijnders, M. & Verweij, M. (2007), "Information and Informed Consent for Neonatal Screening: Opinions and Preferences of Parents", Birth, 34 (3), pp. 238–44.

Other

Van Est, R., Timmer, J., Kool, L., Nijsingh, N., Rerimassie, V., Stemerding, D. (2016), Rules for the digital human park; two paradigmatic cases of breeding and taming human beings: Human germline editing and persuasive technology. Background Paper For The 11th Global Summit Of National Ethics/Bioethics Committees (March 2016.)

Nijsingh (2015) “De onzichtbare hand; over zoekmachines en vertrouwen”, Podium voor bio-ethiek, 3 (2).

Nijsingh (2012) “New Genetics and Informed Consent”, Podium voor bio-ethiek 1(3).

Nijsingh (2012), "Gezondheidszorg op maat"

Nijsingh & Verweij, M. (2007), “Hielprik niet verder uitbreiden”, Medisch Contact 62 (10).

Nijsingh (2007), “Rethinking informed consent; een recensie”, NVBE nieuwsbrief 14.