Ruth Deech, Baroness Deech

Ruth Lynn Deech, Baroness Deech, DBE (b. 29 April 1943, Clapham, London) is an academic, bioethicist and former Governor of the BBC (2002-2006).

Deech studied Law at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating with a first in 1965. She returned to the college in 1970 to be a tutorial fellow in Law, a job she retained until 1991 when she was elected Principal of the college. She retired in 2004, and was succeeded as principal by Tim Gardam. The college has since named its latest building after her; the Ruth Deech Building (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
] ), the fourth to be named for a principal.

She has held many other positions during her life; among others, she served as Senior Proctor of the University of Oxford between 1985 and 1986, as a member of the University's Hebdomadal Council (where after a long campaign she succeeded in setting up a University nursery), as chair of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority from 1994 until 2002, and was appointed to a four year term as a Governor [http://www.bbcgovernors.co.uk/about/ruthdeech.html] of the BBC in 2002, the same year that she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), in recognition of her work at the HFEA.

After leaving St. Anne's, Deech was appointed the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (see Guardian article [http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1092090,00.html] ),dealing with the resolution of student complaints at all UK universities.

On 22 July 2005 it was announced by the House of Lords Appointments Commission that she would be created a life peer (see [http://www.lordsappointments.gov.uk/news/2005/july2005.asp] ), sitting as a Crossbencher. The title was gazetted as Baroness Deech, of Cumnor in the County of Oxfordshire, on 5 October 2005. Lady Deech made her maiden speech on 24 November 2005 (see [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds05/text/51124-06.htm] ).

In 1999, The Observer newspaper named her as the 107th most powerful person in Britain, and in 2001, Deech was placed at no.26 in Channel 4's 'The God List', which ranked "the fifty people of faith in Britain who exercise the most power and influence over our lives" ( [http://www.fulcrumtv.com/program.php?id=96&cat=factual&subcat=current%20affairs&year=2004&pagedesc=2] ).

In November 2007, Deech published "IVF to Immortality: Controversy in the Era of Reproductive Technology", with co-author Anna Smajdor. (see [http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199219797] )

Deech has been a Rhodes Trustee since 1996, and a founding Trustee of The Mandela Rhodes Foundation since 2003.

Baroness Deech is married to a solicitor and has one daughter, a journalist. She is a member of the Jewish Leadership Council, and her interests include travel, opera, theatre, entertaining and public speaking.

Family

Baroness Deech is the daughter of the late historian and journalist, Josef Fraenkel, who fled Vienna from the Nazis in 1939. Her first cousin is Maurice Frankel, Director of the UK Campaign for Freedom of Information.

ee also

*House of Lords, Crossbench Peers [http://www.crossbenchpeers.org.uk]
*House of Lords biography [http://biographies.parliament.uk/parliament/default.asp?id=46359]
*Board of Governors of the BBC [http://www.bbcgovernors.co.uk/]
*St Anne's College, University of Oxford [http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/frameset.htm?content/inf/index.htm&1]
*Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) [http://www.oiahe.org.uk]

References

* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/minutes/051025/ldminute.htm Announcement of her introduction at the House of Lords]
* [http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199219797 "IVF to Immortality: Controversy in the Era of Reproductive Technology" by Ruth Deech and Anna Smajdor, Oxford University Press, Nov 2007]