Edward Shotter

{{short description|English Anglican priest (1933–2019)}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2021}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}

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| occupation = Priest

| education = Humberstone Foundation School
Durham University

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Edward Frank Shotter (29 June 1933 – 3 July 2019) was an Anglican priest.

Shotter was educated at Humberstone Foundation School. He studied architecture for some time at Durham University, before completing a theology degree at St David's College, Lampeter, followed by further training at St Stephen's House, Oxford.{{Cite web|title=Edward Shotter UWTSD |url=https://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/library/special-collections/200-biographies-celebrating-lampeters-bicentenary/law-medicine-and-science/edward-shotter/ |access-date=18 April 2023 |website=www.uwtsd.ac.uk}} He was ordained in 1961.Who's Who 2008: London, A & C Black, 2008 {{ISBN|978-0-7136-8555-8}}Crockfords(London, Church House 1995) {{ISBN|0-7151-8088-6}} He began his ministry as a curate at St Peter's Plymouth, after which he was intercollegiate secretary of the Student Christian Movement. From 1966 to 1989, he was director of studies at the London Medical Group and was appointed Dean of Rochester, a post he held until retirement in 2003.Debrett's People of Today London, 2008 Debrett's, {{ISBN|978-1-870520-95-9}}

Shotter is most notable for founding the London Medical Group in the mid-1960s. This was a forum for the discussion of the ethical issues of medicine and grew out of his work with the Student Christian Movement, the Diocese of London, and the London Medical Deaneries. This group was widely exported to other UK medical schools. The group, its activities, and members presaged the Society for the Study of Medical Ethics, later the Institute of Medical Ethics, which set up the Journal of Medical Ethics. Despite being involved with the LMG and its descendant organisations for over four decades, he never lectured on any particular medical ethical topic. He only ever chaired two meetings of the LMG, once because of the last-minute cancellation of the arranged chair.Whong-Barr, Michael. "Clinical Ethics Teaching in Britain: a History of the London Medical Group." New Review of Bioethics 1, no. 1 (November 2003): 73–84. p. 77 Ensuring that LMG was not seen as a 'chaplaincy exercise' was important to its success; Shotter ensured its impartiality and the even-handed representation of all parties in debates.Reynolds, L.A., and E.M. Tansey, eds. Medical Ethics Education in Britain, 1963-1993. London: UK: Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2007. Available from: http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/14885/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325191214/http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/14885/ |date=25 March 2014 }} p. 117

On 9 December 2016, Shotter was presented with the Hastings Center's Henry Knowles Beecher Award for 2017.{{cite web|url=http://ime.datawareonline.co.uk/event-booking/eventId/1020|title=Institute of Medical Ethics > Event Booking|first=Institute of Medical|last=Ethics|date=|website=ime.datawareonline.co.uk|access-date=28 July 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.thehastingscenter.org/who-we-are/service-to-bioethics/henry-knowles-beecher-award/|title=Henry Knowles Beecher Award - The Hastings Center|author=|date=|website=thehastingscenter.org|access-date=28 July 2018}}

He died on 3 July 2019, four days after his 86th birthday.[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetimes-uk/obituary.aspx?n=edward-shotter&pid=193415960 Edward Shotter]{{cite news|title=The Very Reverend Edward Shotter, Dean of Rochester and pioneer of medical ethics – obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/08/01/reverend-edward-shotter-dean-rochester-pioneer-medical-ethics/|work=The Telegraph|date=1 August 2019}} {{registration required}}