Research team

Prof. dr. Veerle Provoost

Veerle Provoost is a professor of empirical and philosophical ethics affiliated with the Bioethics Institute Ghent. She holds a degree in philosophy (Ghent University, 1997) and gerontology (Free University of Brussels, 2000). In 2005, she earned her doctorate in Social Health Sciences (Free University of Brussels) with a thesis on end-of-life decisions for newborns and infants.

Aside from studying parenthood and families, she focuses on the methodological aspects of empirical bioethics, particularly exploring how empirical data can be used in addressing normative bioethical issues. Veerle Provoost is a member of the Advisory Committee on Bioethics, the expert committee on Intercountry Adoption, and the Board of Directors of De Maakbare Mens.

Prof. dr. Guido Pennings

Guido Pennings studied Moral Sciences at the Free University of Brussels and completed his doctorate at the same university in 1999 with a dissertation titled ‘An ethical analysis of medically assisted reproduction with donor gametes.’

He was affiliated with the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at the Free University of Brussels from 1992 to 2003, first as a scientific collaborator and later as a part-time lecturer, working on projects related to genetics, medically assisted reproduction, and ethics. Since 2003, he has been a professor of ethics and bioethics at Ghent University. In 2009, he became an Affiliate Lecturer at the Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology, and International Studies at Cambridge University. He was also appointed as a guest professor in the “Ethics of Reproductive Medicine” at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Free University of Brussels.

He is a member of various ethical committees, including the Reflection Cell of the Center for Reproductive Medicine, the Advisory Committee on Bioethics, and the Federal Commission for Research on In Vitro Embryos.

Kato Verghote

Kato Verghote obtained a Master’s degree in Moral Sciences from UGent in 2020. Since January 2021, she has been working on her doctorate within the BIG at Ghent University. Her research is part of a larger project in collaboration with the Institute for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Basel, focusing on the ethical challenges of family formation at an advanced age (40+).

Within this project, Kato is primarily involved in empirical ethics. She conducts interviews with women who became mothers after the age of 40 and had one or more children at least 10 years earlier, young adults with a minimum age difference of 40 years from their parents, and women who underwent an abortion for non-medical reasons after the age of 40.

  • Email: kato.verghote@ugent.be

Steven Piek

Steven Piek has been pursuing his doctorate since 2021 on the project ‘Parenthood at an Older Age’ within the BIG. He previously studied Journalism in the Netherlands (Hogeschool Utrecht, 2016), Applied Ethics in the Netherlands (Utrecht University, 2018), and Philosophy in Belgium (KU Leuven, 2020).

He focuses on both the normative and empirical dimensions of parenthood at an older age. This includes ethical justifications for age limits on access to assisted reproduction and the collection and analysis of interview data from fathers who had children later in life and couples undergoing fertility treatment with the man being 50 years or older.

  • Email: steven.piek@ugent.be

Lara Jacxsens

Lara Jacxsens graduated with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees (summa cum laude) in Moral Sciences from Ghent University in 2019. Her research focuses on the ethical aspects of reproductive medicine, particularly in the context of egg donation.

In 2019, she began her doctoral research at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University. Her research aims to achieve international consensus on the crucial information required for potential egg donors to provide valid informed consent, using a Delphi study.

  • Email: lara.jacxsens@ugent.be

Lei Decappelle

Lei Decappelle has been working on his doctorate within the BIG at Ghent University since October 2023. Earlier in the same year, he earned his Master’s degree in Moral Sciences (summa cum laude). His research seeks to provide insight into the structure of new families built on the principle of elective (co-)parenthood.

Lei is involved in both empirical (through observations and interviews) and normative issues within this project.

  • Email: lei.decappelle@ugent.be

Sara Somers

Sara Somers graduated as a Master in Midwifery from Ghent University in 2011 and completed the Specific Teacher Training in 2012 at the same university. She currently works as a study coordinator at the Women’s Clinic of UZ Gent, mainly involved in clinical studies in the Department of Reproductive Medicine.

Sara is also working on a doctorate on reproductive decisions.

  • Email: sara.somers@uzgent.be