Damien Keown

Damien Keown (born 1951) is a British academic, bioethicist, and authority on Buddhist bioethics.[1] He currently teaches in the Department of History at the University of London. Keown earned a B.A. in religious studies from the University of Lancaster in 1977 and a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford in 1986.

Keown is Reader in Buddhism at the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Keown's most important books include The Nature of Buddhist Ethics (1992) and Buddhism & Bioethics (1995). His most widely read book is Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press).