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Associate Professor Kristin Savell

Profile

Degrees

BSc LLB Macquarie LLM McG PhD Camb


Courses Taught
Undergraduate
Criminal law

Postgraduate
Death Law
Health Care and Professional Liability
Health Law for Health Professionals
Policing Bodies: Crime, Sexuality & Reproduction


Areas of Interest

  • Health Law
  • Criminal Law
  • Legal Theory
  • Legal Personhood
  • Law & Sexuality


Biography
Kristin Savell is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney. She teaches and researches in the fields of health law, criminal law and legal/bioethical theories. Kristin holds undergraduate degrees in science (biology) and law from Macquarie University, and graduate degrees from McGill University (LLM, Honours) and Cambridge University (PhD). She was the recipient of a Lionel Murphy Scholarship and a W. M. Tapp Studentship (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge).

Kristin is a legal member of the NSW Cancer Institute Clinical Research Ethics Committee (a lead HREC) and the Editorial Board of the Sydney Law Review. She is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics and is the coordinator of the Masters of Health Law program at the University of Sydney.

Kristin is working on a range of projects including: a co-authored monograph with Isabel Karpin entitled: Perfecting Pregnancy: Law, Disability, and the Future of Reproduction (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2012) and a major ARC funded project on the legal meaning of serious disability in prenatal and neonatal decision-making. She also continues her work on projects concerning the legal and medical regulation of non-normative embodiment; stem cells and cloning, end of life decision-making, and the social, clinical and legal constructions of death and dying.

Before commencing her academic career, Kristin practised as a solicitor at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, in the intellectual property and trade practices law group.


Other Appointments (selected)

  • Deputy Director, Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics, University of Sydney: 2007 -
  • Coordinator of the Masters of Health Law program, University of Sydney: 2008 -
  • Lawyer Member, NSW Cancer Institute, Clinical Research Ethics Committee: 2008 –
  • Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney: 2007-2010
  • Member, Editorial Board, Sydney Law Review: 2006–


Major Grants

  • ARC Discovery Grant, "The legal meaning of "serious disability" in prenatal and neonatal decision-making" 2009-2011 (with Isabel Karpin)

Grants and Fellowships (selected)

  • Legal Scholarship Support Fund: 'An analysis and critique of the legal regulation of embryonic research for therapeutic purposes and the prohibition of inheritable genetic modification in Australia, the UK and the USA (2008)
  • USyd (Research and Development) Grant: 'The determination of criminal liability for death in medical settings' (2007)
  • Legal Scholarship Support Fund: Disability, Abortion and Infanticide (2006)
  • Legal Scholarship Support Fund (with Isabel Karpin): Human Rights and Personhood (2004)
  • W. M. Tapp Studentship in Law (Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge) (1996-1999)
  • Lionel Murphy Postgraduate Scholarship (1994)

Publications

Books | Book Chapters | Articles in refereed journals | Legal Encyclopedias | Book Reviews | Invited Presentations/Workshops | Conference Papers

Books

  • Perfecting Pregnancy - Law, Disability and the Future of Reproduction (with Isabel Karpin) (Cambridge University Press: New York, March 2012) 380 pages.

Book Chapters

  • Savell, K, “Turning Mothers into Bio-ethicists: Late Abortion and Disability” in B Bennett, T Carney & I Karpin (eds) The Brave New World of Health, Federation Press: Australia (2008) 93-111.
  • Savell, K, “Mother of the Legal Person” in S Palmer & S James (eds), Visible Women - Essays in Feminist Legal Theory and Philosophy, Hart: Oxford (2002) 29-67.

Articles in refereed journals

Other Articles

  • Savell K, "Reproductive Choice or Eliminating Disability? Prenatal Testing and Abortion' (2008) 8 Precedent 25-30

Legal Encyclopedias

  • Savell, K, 'Newborns with Disabilities', Halsbury's Laws of Australia, Butterworths/Lexis Nexis (2007) 20.12, Chapter 5

Book Reviews

  • Savell, K, 'The Interfaces of Medicine & Law: The History of the Liability for Negligently Caused Psychiatric Injury (Nervous Shock)' (1999) 58 Cambridge Law Journal 638-641.
  • Savell, K, 'Feminist Perspectives on Health Care Law' (1999) 58 Cambridge Law Journal 449-452.

Invited Presentations/Workshops

  • Savell, K, “Panellist: Birth with Risk Factors”, Childbirth and the Law Forum, Australian College of Midwives, Maternity Coalition and Homebirth Australia, 12 October 2012.
  • Savell, K, “HIV prevention and the law” HIV nursing practice workshop, Albion Street Centre, Surry Hills, 7-9 May 2012.
  • Savell, K, “Legal issues around consent to treatment”, Surgical Skills Training Program, Centre for Workplace Training and Development, NSW Health, 30 March 2012.
  • Savell, K (with I Karpin) “Serious Disability’ as a regulatory tool in the context of PGD and abortion in Australia” Reproducing Normality – Disability, Prenatal testing & Bioethics Workshop, Centre for Values and Ethics in Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, December 7, 2011.
  • Savell K (with S Hertzberg) “Legal Minefields in Emergency Medicine” Annual Conference of Emergency Medicine, Darling Harbour Conference Centre, Sydney 23-25 November 2011.
  • Savell K, “Consent, Capacity and Duty of Care for Surgeons” Scott Skirving Lecture Theatre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, April 6 and April 13, 2011
  • Savell, K, "Late Termination of Pregnancy – The Challenges" at NSW Meeting of Maternal-Fetal Counsellors, Scott Skirving Lecture Theatre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, 3 March 2011
  • Savell, K, 'In the Shadow of the Law? Late termination of pregnancy across the States and Territories' at National Obstetric Malpractice Conference, Melbourne, 16-17 September 2010
  • Savell, K, Why are we talking about 'late abortion'? Grand Rounds, Royal Women's Hospital, Randwick, August 2010
  • Savell, K, 'The legal framework for late-term abortion' at Slater and Gordon 5th Annual Medical Forum- Antenatal Conversations, Sydney, May 2010
  • Savell, K, 'Dead or dying: Resistance to the legal definition of brain death' at Interrogating Death and Dying: Legal, Biomedical and Social Perspectives, Sydney Law School, 6 November 2009
  • Savell, K, 'Do we know death when we see it?' Public Lecture – Death in the 21st Century, State Library of Queensland, Auditorium 2, 16 July 2009 (also presented on ABC TV Fora, Sunday, 9 August 2009) | Video |
  • Savell, K, 'A Jurisprudence of Ambivalence: Three Legal Fictions concerning Death and Dying' at The Death Scene: Perspectives on Mortality, White Gloves Room, State Library Of Queensland, Brisbane, hosted by Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, Griffith University, 15-16 July 2009.

Conference Papers

  • Karpin, I and Savell, K “Ambiguity and Ambivalence in the regulation of PGD and abortion for fetal abnormality" Selective Reproductive Technologies - Routes of Routinisation and Globalisation, Copenhagen, 13-15 December 2012.
  • Savell, K and Karpin, I “Should we define a ‘serious disability’ for the purposes of regulating pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and abortion and, if so, how?” Workshop presented at Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law, Auckland New Zealand, 13-15 July 2012.
  • Savell, K and Karpin, I, "The Meaning of 'Serious Disability' in the Context of PGD and Abortion: The Perspectives of Regulators and Health Care Professionals in Australia", Disability Studies: Every Body In, University of Otago, Dunedin 27-30 November 2011.
  • Savell, K and Karpin, I, "The Meaning of 'Serious Disability' in the Context of PGD and Abortion: The Perspectives of Regulators and Health Care Professionals in Australia", 32nd International Congress of Law and Mental Health, Berlin, July 2011
  • Savell, K, 'Why is Brain Death Still Subject to Dissent and Does it Matter?' at the Inaugural National University of Singapore/ University of Sydney Symposium, hosted by the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, 30-31 July 2009.
  • Savell, K, 'Conceptualizing Treatment Futility, Serious Disability and Death in End-of-Life Decisions for Children' at the 31s tCongress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, New York, USA, 28 June-4 July 2009.
  • Savell, K, 'Law's Expanding Domain: Technology and the Late Term Foetus' presented at Regulating the Scientific Frontier Conference, University of Sydney, 24 November 2006.
  • Savell, K, 'The Morality of Abortion - Reflections on Donald Marquis' 'Future of Value', Intersections Seminar Series, Faculty of Law, May 2006.
  • Savell, K, 'The Conjoined Twins - A Legal Perspective', presented at CLE Seminar, Tragic Choices: Clinical, Legal and Ethical Perspectives on the British Conjoined Twins Case, University of Sydney, 15 November 2000.
  • Savell, K, 'Maternal Monstrosities and Other Catastrophes - Risk, Responsibility and Disobedience in Cultural and Legal Narratives about Pregnancy', presented at Risk & Responsibility Conference, University of Sydney, 10-11 November 2000.
  • Savell, K, 'Killing Jodie to Save Mary: Notions of Sacrifice and Bodily Integrity in Re A (Children)', presented at Faculty of Law Seminar Series, University of Sydney, 12 October 2000.
  • Savell, K, 'Foetal Rights: The Politics of Boundaries', presented at Faculty of Law Seminar Series, Macquarie University, May 2000.
  • Savell, K, 'The Recognition of Foetal Rights in English Law', presented to Faculty of Law, Cambridge University, February 1999.
  • Savell, K, 'Constructions of the Maternal Body in Law', presented at International Conference on Gender, Sexuality and Law, Keele University, United Kingdom, July 1998.