Educated at Somerville College, Oxford, Elizabeth Telfer is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. She is the co-author (with R.S.Downie) of Respect for Persons (1969) and Caring and Curing (1980), and (with R.S.Downie and Eileen M.Loudfoot) of Education and Personal Relationships (1974), and is the author of Happiness (1980).