Dr. Boer (Rotterdam, 1960) studied theology and ethics at Utrecht University (1979-1989) and Uppsala University (1983-1984). From 1987-2001 he was a researcher at the Center for Bioethics and Health Law of Utrecht University, where his focus was on the relations between ethics, institutional health care, and Christian faith. In those years he served on many institutional ethics committees. In 1989 he did his church internship in Karl-Marx-Stadt in East Germany. In 1995 he got his theological licentiate at Uppsala University and in 1997 his theological doctorate at Utrecht University, both on the theocentric ethics of James M. Gustafson. In 2001, Dr. Boer was appointed senior lecturer of ethics at Utrecht University, since 2007 senior lecturer of ethics at the Protestant Theological University in Utrecht, a position that was transferred to Groningen in 2012 and which he still holds until now.
Dr. Boer has extensive experience in the ethics of euthanasia and assisted suicide. From 2005-2014, he served on one of the five Regional Review Committees on Euthanasia. Five of these committees review in hindsight whether a case of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide have taken place in accordance with legal requirements. During those years, he has become increasingly critical of developments in this field, and has become one of the most vocal critics of the Dutch euthanasia law. Dr. Boer chairs the Committee on Bioethics and Biotechnology of the Conference of European Churches, is a board member of the Dutch Research School of Philosophy (Section Ethics and Practical Philosophy), chairs the Dutch and Belgian Research Group in Theological Ethics, and co-chairs the Interest Group Evangelical Ethics of the (American) Society of Christian Ethics. In 2014, he was appointed Lindeboom professor of Health Care Ethics at Kampen Theological University. His present research includes end-of-life decisions, new diagnostic methods, human enhancement, and the ethics of war and peace. Dr. Boer is frequently heard and seen in Dutch and international media. He lives near Utrecht in the Netherlands, is married with two children, and is an active member of the Protestant Church of the Netherlands.
Web-site (Dutch only): https://www.pthu.nl/Over_PThU/Organisatie/Medewerkers/t.a.boer/
