Dr Esther Braun

Esther is a medical doctor and bioethicist currently working on her DPhil in Philosophy. Her DPhil is funded by the Clarendon Fund, a Scatcherd European Scholarship, and Wadham College. She is also a research associate in a project on Digital Medical Ethics at the University of Potsdam and is part of the Europaeum Scholars Programme.

Esther holds a medical degree, a BA in Comparative Literature and History and Philosophy of Science, and an MA in Philosophy from the Goethe University Frankfurt, as well as an MSt in Practical Ethics from the University of Oxford. Her research in experimental oncology for her medical doctorate was funded by the Mildred Scheel Scholarship of the German Cancer Aid. 

Esther primarily works on ethical questions related to assisted dying, coercion in psychiatry, reproductive justice, and structural injustice in healthcare, using both philosophical analysis and qualitative empirical methods. For her work, she has been awarded the DGPPN Prize for Philosophy and Ethics in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (2023), the Young Scholar Award by the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare (2024), and the National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics (2025).

Her publications can be found here.