My first vote was for a communist in east London when I was a medical student. But I've voted Tory, Labour and Lib Dem in my time.

I think that good parenting should allow children to be children. That naivety and slightly open way of looking at the world is very valuable.

We live longer and healthier lives than ever before. Animal research has improved the treatment of infections, helped with immunisation, improved cancer treatment and had a big impact on managing heart disease, brain disorders, arthritis and transplantation.

Childhood depression tends to be more common in inner cities, being most frequently related to serious social deprivation, bullying, domestic violence, wartime experience and famine. It is, for example, a serious problem among children who are traumatised refugees.

My own field, the prevention of genetic disorders in babies, has been possible only because of humane work on animals.

Ethics is not routinely taught to science students except in medicine, and I think it should be.

Religion has endured since the dawn of human consciousness precisely because it encompasses so much of being human. No idea has endured so long, gathered up so many disparate needs and wants and feelings, and inspired so many different paths towards understanding it.