prof. dr. mr. BC van Beers

Britta van Beers is professor of law, ethics and biotechnology at the department of legal theory and legal history. In her teaching and research, she explores the legal-philosophical dimensions of the regulation and governance of biomedical technologies.

She graduated in law and philosophy (cum laude) at the University of Amsterdam and studied at New York University School of Law. After graduation she worked and studied in Tokyo as part of a 1-year post-graduate programme of Japanese language and culture, organised by the University of Leiden.

In 2002 she started as a PhD candidate at the VU law faculty. She was a visiting scholar at the Parisian universities Panthéon-Sorbonne and EHESS in 2005. In December 2019 she was appointed as full professor on the VU University Research Chair. From 2018 to 2026 she was Director of the Faculty of Law's Graduate School. In 2022-2023 she was appointed on a Francqui chair at the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp to teach and do research about the legal distinction between persons and things. 

In her research, Van Beers explores the legal and legal-philosophical meaning of concepts such as person, humanity and dignity within the governance of technological developments. Of special interest to her are the symbolic dimensions and functions of the law within the regulation of biotechnologies, especially in the fields of assisted reproduction, genetics and neurotechnologies. She has published on a wide range of issues, including the status of embryos, body parts and human remains; reproductive tourism and reproductive markets; surrogacy; the legal person-thing disctinction; reproductive wrongs; heritable genome editing; and the meaning of dignity and personhood within the legal governance of biotechnologies, neurotechnologies and AI.

Main publications:

• A. Martani, F. van der Weij, S. van Baalen & B.C. van Beers, 'Repoliticising heritable human genome editing: discursive narrowing and technomoral change in the international debate on human germline modification', New Genetics and Society 2025.
• B.C. van Beers, 'Het einde van de juridische persoon?', NJLP 2024.
• B.C. van Beers & L. Bosch, 'A Revolution by Stealth: A Legal-Ethical Analysis of the Rise of Pre-Conception Authorization of Surrogacy Arrangements', The New Bioethics 2020.
• B.C. van Beers, 'Rewriting the human genome, rewriting human rights law? Human rights, human dignity, and human germline modification in the CRISPR era', Journal of Law and the Biosciences 2020.
• B.C. van Beers, S. Sterckx & D. Dickenson (eds.), Personalised Medicine, Individual Choice and the Common Good, Cambridge University Press 2018.
• B.C. van Beers, 'The Changing Nature of Law's Natural Person. The Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Legal Concept of the Person', German Law Journal 2017.
• B.C. van Beers, 'Is Europe 'Giving in to Baby Markets?' Reproductive Tourism in Europe and the Gradual Erosion of Existing Legal Limits to Reproductive Markets', Medical Law Review 2015.
• B.C. van Beers, Persoon en lichaam in het recht. Menselijke waardigheid en zelfbeschikking in het tijdperk van de medische biotechnologie (dissertation VU), Boom Juridische Uitgevers 2009.   

Van Beers teaches the following courses:

• Recht, ethiek en biotechnologie (Law, ethics and biotechnology, B3, part of the legal minor Juridische uitdagingen van de 21e eeuw)

• Bioethics, technology and law (master)
• Law and ethics of reproductive technologies (B3, part of the university minor Technology, law and ethics)

Contact details

• Gezondheidsraad | Den Haag | lid beraadsgroep | 2024-05-14 - present
• Commissie Genetische Modificatie | Bilthoven | lid subcommissie Ethiek en Maatschappelijke Aspecten | 2026-03-01 - present

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