Onora O'Neill is former principal of Newnham College, Cambridge. Her books include Faces of Hunger: An Essay on Poverty, Development and Justice (1986), Constructions of Reason: Exploration of Kant's Practical Philosophy (1989), Towards Justice and Virtue (1996), Bounds of Justice (2000), and Autonomy and Trust in Bioethics (2002).
She is a former member and chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Human Genetics Advisory Commission, and chairs the Nuffield Foundation.
O'Neill is a member of the House of Lords (Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve), sits as a crossbencher and was a member of the Select Committee on Stem Cell Research.