Sydney Health Ethics

Join us for SHE Conversation, every second Thursday during semester, from 12pm to 1pm, in person or online. Conversation is an engaging mix of formal talks and dynamic discussions. All are welcome!

The SHE Journal Club, held monthly during semester, is a chance to meet informally to discuss a journal paper and the ethical questions it raises. It’s a friendly group and everyone is welcome (no bioethics skills required!). Feel free to bring lunch or coffee with you! 

Hosted by Sydney Health Ethics Affiliates from the Clinical Ethics Services at South Eastern Sydney Local Health District and Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, come along to the Clinical Ethics Salon, a casual online meetup every fourth Tuesday. This is for those interested in clinical ethics to share ideas and discuss their work. 

For more ethics reflection and skill development, join the Clinical Ethics Roundtable. Roundtable is an informal and collegiate space to explore practical clinical ethics issues in greater depth and in conversation with clinicians, academics, and others.

• Attinger, S., Jackson, E., Karpin, I., Kerridge, I., Newson, A.J., Stewart, C., van de Wiel, L., Lipworth, W.L. (2024) Addressing the consequences of the corporatisation of reproductive medicine. Medical Law Review, published online 25 July 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwae018
• Ussher, J.M., Carpenter, M., Power, R., Ryan, S., Allison, K., Hart,  B., Hawkey, A., Perz, J. (2024) I’ve Had Constant Fears That I’ll Get Cancer: The Construction and Experience of Medical Intervention on Intersex Bodies to Reduce Cancer Risk’. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2024.2356924
• Watts G, Newson AJ, Dive L. Ethical preparedness in the clinical genomics laboratory: the value of embedded ethics expertise. Journal of Medical Ethics 2024; 50:530-531. https://jme.bmj.com/content/50/8/530
• Salamanca-Buentello F, Katz R, Silva DS, Upshur REG, Smith MJ (2024) Research ethics review during the COVID-19 pandemic: An international study. PLoS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292512
• Denholm J, Silva DS (2024) Community voices and whole genome sequencing for tuberculosis: storytelling and the importance of listening. Public Health Genomics. 27(1):68-73. https://doi.org/10.1159/000537727
• Mendes, Á., Newson, A.J. (2024). “Liminality between direct and family-mediated contact in the communication of genetic information to at-risk relatives” European Journal of Human Genetics, published online 16 April 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41431-024-01605-y.
• Drysdale, K., Scully, J.L., Kint, L., Laginha, K-J., Hodgson, J., Holmes, I., MacKay, K.L, Newson, A.J. (2024) “The salience of genomic information to reproductive autonomy: Australian healthcare professionals’ views on a changing prenatal testing landscape.” New Genetics and Society, 43(1): e2332310, doi: 10.1080/14636778.2024.2332310.
• Kariyawasam, D.S., Scarfe, J. (joint first authors), Meagher, C., Farrar, M.A., Bhattcharya, K., Carter, S.M., Newson, A.J., Otlowski, M., Watson, J. Millis, N., Norris S. (2024) "Integrating Ethics and Equity with Economics and Effectiveness for newborn screening in the genomic age: A qualitative study protocol of stakeholder perspectives." PLoS One, 19(3):e0299336. Published 25 Mar 2024, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299336
• Salamanca-Buentello, F., Katz, R., Silva, D.S., Upshur, R.E.G., Smith, M.J. (2024) “Research ethics review during the COVID-19 pandemic: An international study.” PLoS One, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292512
• Wiersma, M., Kerridge, I. H., & Lipworth, W. (2024). Perspectives on non-financial conflicts of interest in health-related journals: A scoping review. Accountability in Research, 1–37, doi: 10.1080/08989621.2024.2337046
• Gallagher, S., & Germain, S. (2024). Book review: Medical Doctors in Health Reforms: A Comparative Study of England and Canada.
• Carpenter, M., Kraus, C., Earp, B.D. 2024. ‘Reply to Hadidi’. Journal of Pediatric Urology, doi: 10.1016/j.jpurol.2024.02.015
• Carpenter, M. 2024. ‘From Harmful Practices and Instrumentalisation, towards Legislative Protections and Community-Owned Healthcare Services: The Context and Goals of the Intersex Movement in Australia’. Social Sciences 13 (4): 191, doi: 10.3390/socsci13040191
• Hooker, C., Karageorge, A., Scott, K.M., Lim, R., Nash, L. (2024). Grace Under Pressure: a mixed methods impact assessment of a verbatim theatre intervention to improve healthcare workplace culture. BMC Health Services Research volume 24, 474, doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-10961-w
• Hooker, C., Broom, A., Scott, K., Nash, L. (2024). What junior doctors’ unpaid overtime tells us about the toxic side of medicine. 
• Subramani S., Vinay R., März JW., Hefti M., Biller-Andorno N. (2024). Ethical Issues in Breastfeeding and Lactation Interventions: A Scoping Review. Journal of Human Lactation. 2024;40(1):150-163. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890334423121507
  
• Gallagher, S., Attinger, S., Sassano, A., Sutton, L., Kerridge, I., Newson, A., Farsides, B., Hammarberg, K., Hart, R., Jackson, E., Ledger, W., Mayes, C., Mills, C., Norcross, S., Norman, R., Rombauts, L., Waldby, C., Yazdani, A., Lipworth W. (2024). “Medicine in the marketplace: clinician and patient views on commercial influences on assisted reproductive technologies.” Reproductive BioMedicine Online.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2024.103850
• Carr, S., Hooker, C. (2023). Health humanities for inclusive, globally interdependent, supportive and decolonised health professional education: The future is health humanities! Focus on Health Professional Education: A Multi-Professional Journal, 24(4), 123–135. https://doi.org/10.11157/fohpe.v24i4.721
• Carpenter, M. (2023). Protecting Intersex People from Harmful Practices in Medical Settings: A New Benchmark in the Australian Capital Territory. Australian Journal of Human Rights 29 (2): 409–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2023.2247863
• Carpenter, M, Kraus, C., Earp, BD. (2024). "Should We Correct Hypospadias during Childhood?” A Question of Facts and Values’. Journal of Pediatric Urology (In press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpurol.2024.01.025
  
• Modra, Lucy J., Alisa M. Higgins, David V. Pilcher, Ada S. Cheung, Morgan N. Carpenter, Michael Bailey, Sav Zwickl, and Rinaldo Bellomo. 2024. ‘Epidemiology of Intensive Care Patients Classified as a Third Sex in Australia and New Zealand’. CHEST (In press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2023.11.043
• Heynemann S., Lipworth W., McLachlan S.A., Philip J., John T., Kerridge I. (2023). Therapeutic misunderstandings in modern research. Bioethics. 2023; 38(2): 138-152. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13241
• Dalton, J., Hooker, C. (2023). The Excess and Erased: Dramaturgical notes on performing care in medicine. In Bouchard, G, and Mermikides, A. (eds) Routledge Companion to Performance and Medicine. London: Routledge, [forthcoming] 
  
• Gallagher, S., Kerridge, I., Newson, A., Attinger, S., Norman, R., & Lipworth, W. (2023). Moral justification for the use of ‘add-ons’ in assisted reproductive technology (ART): Experts’ views and experiences. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 103637.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2023.103637
• Gallagher, S, Lipworth, W., & Guselli, L. (2023). Growing concerns over billion-dollar baby industry. 360info. https://360info.org/growing-concerns-over-billion-dollar-baby-industry/
• Hooker, C., Phillips, B. and Carr, S. (2023). Health and Medical Humanities in Global Health: From the Anglocentric to the Anthropocene. In Liambuttong, P. (ed) Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health. London: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_14-1
• Hooker C., Marques, M., Goldwater, M., Degeling, C. and Leask, J. (2023). Values in risk communication about Covid-19. In Lewis, M., Govender, E., and Holland, K. (eds) Communicating Covid-19: Media, Trust, and Public Engagement. Vol II. London: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN: 978-3-031-41236-3.
• Stanbury, C., Lipworth, W., Gallagher, S., Norman, R.J., Newson, A.J. (2023). What normative weight should patient-led demand have in clinical decisions about Assisted Reproductive Technologies? Bioethics 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13239
• Subramani, S. (2023). Beyond Public Health and Private Choice: Breastfeeding, Embodiment and Public Health Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41649-023-00259-0
• Wrigley, A., Watts, G., Lipworth, W., Newson, A.J. (2023) Hope and exploitation in commercial provision of assisted reproductive technologies. Hastings Center Report, 53(5):30-41. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.1513
• Silva, DS., Smith, MJ. (2023) 'Data sharing during pandemics: Reciprocity, solidarity, and limits to obligations' Journal of Bioethical Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-023-10251-w
• Anderson, W. (2023). Toward Planetary Health Ethics? Refiguring Bios in Bioethics. Journal of Bioethical Enquiry. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11673-023-10285-0
• Kite, J., Chan, L., MacKay, K. et. al., (2023). A model of social media effects in public health communication campaigns. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 25:e46345. https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e46345
• Subramani, S. (2023). Emotions and affects: the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle of understanding risk attitudes in medical decision-making. Journal of Medical Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme-2023-109374
• White, S., Haas, M., Laginha, K-J., Laurendet, K., Gaff, C., Vears, D., Newson, A.J. (2023). Justifying terminology associated with genomic findings beyond the scope of the original test indication: A scoping review. Genetics in Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gim.2023.100936
• Vears, D., Boyle, J., Jacobs, C., McInerney-Leo, A., Newson, A.J., on behalf of the Education, Ethics and Social Issues Committee of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia. (2023). Human Genetics Society of Australasia Position Statement: Genetic Carrier Testing for Recessive Conditions. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 26(2): 188-194. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-human-genetics/article/human-genetics-society-of-australasia-position-statement-genetic-carrier-testing-for-recessive-conditions/C1C5C335F6F595A06305693AA235684C
• Mooney-Somers, J., Anderst. A. and Deacon, R. (2023). How a 25-year-old periodic survey for lesbian, bisexual and queer women responded and adapted to gender diversity: a reflexive analysis. Journal of Gender Studies: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2022.2162864
• Watts G, Newson AJ. Is there a duty to routinely reinterpret genomic variant classifications? Journal of Medical Ethics. https://jme.bmj.com/content/medethics/early/2023/05/18/jme-2022-108864.full.pdf
• Arnold, M,  Kerridge, I. (2023). Patient-centricity: research's new shibboleth? Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.  2023; 1- 5. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.13830
• Vears, D., Savulescu, J., Christodoulou, J., Wall, M., Newson, A.J. (2023). Are we ready for genomic newborn screening?. Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine, 16: 681-691. https://doi.org/10.2147/PGPM.S376083
• Dive, L., Holmes, I., Newson, A.J. (2023). Is it just for a screening program to give people all the information they want? American Journal of Bioethics, 23(7):34-42. 
• Heynemann, S., Lipworth, W., McLachlan, S.-A., Philip, J., John, T. and Kerridge, I. (2023). When research becomes practice: the concept of the therapeutic misconception and challenges to consent in clinical trials. Internal Medicine Journal, 53: 271-274. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/imj.16015
• Carpenter, M. (2023). Fixing bodies and shaping narratives: Epistemic injustice and the responses of medicine and bioethics to intersex human rights demands'. Clinical Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1177/14777509231180412

Mendes, Á., Newson, A.J. (2024). “Liminality between direct and family-mediated contact in the communication of genetic information to at-risk relatives” European Journal of Human Genetics, published online 16 April 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41431-024-01605-y.

Sydney Health Ethics network members, to share your recent publications with our community, please send through the details and link to she.network@sydney.edu.au.

Our innovative and interdisciplinary postgraduate program in bioethics will help you develop the critical skills you need to analyse ethical issues in medicine, life sciences and health.

Students consider questions like: What is bioethics and why is it important? Why is public health a moral enterprise? How should the law respond to ethical issues in health? What is ‘medicalisation’? What makes research ‘ethical’? How do we make medicines safe, effective and accessible? What are the limits of autonomy and consent? What do we owe non-human animals? Why might art transform health and healthcare? 

Courses are offered in a variety of formats to suit students with competing time demands.

• Graduate Certificate in Bioethics
• Graduate Diploma in Bioethics
• Master of Bioethics

We provide support and training to our students, giving them the opportunity to participate in weekly seminars and monthly team meetings, contribute to our teaching programs in their areas of expertise, and self-organise peer support and skill-building activities.

Expressions of Interest

If you are interested in becoming a research student at Sydney Health Ethics, you will need to submit an expression of interest. If successful, we will support you to apply to the University of Sydney for an official HDR place. 

Before you submit an expression of interest: 

1. identify a Sydney Health Ethics academic who you think would be a good supervisor for the project you want to do
2. contact the academic and introduce yourself 
3. prepare and submit your Expression of Interest with the support of that academic.

You will need: 

• your CV
• copy of your academic transcript
• statement of support from an academic referee
• a sample of written work (eg undergraduate assignment, thesis chapter, dissertation or published or unpublished paper)
• Statement of Purpose describing your interests, reasons for pursuing an advanced degree at Sydney Health Ethics (1-2 pages) and your long-term goals
• project outline (1-2 pages) including background, research aims and research questions, method and anticipated outcomes – this is not assumed to be a final product but assists us in assessing your ability to choose a topic to research, identify research questions and plan your investigation
• a brief outline of any formal discussions with Sydney Health Ethics staff and your preferences regarding supervision (if you have any).

To submit your expression of interest, email Professor Ainsley Newson at ainsley.newson@sydney.edu.au

You can submit an expression of interest at any time. However, please ensure that you submit at least one month ahead of the relevant University application date. 

Please note: Sydney Health Ethics does not have the authority to offer an official place in a Higher Degree Research (HDR) program. This authority rests with the University of Sydney. An expression of interest is only the beginning of the process of entering a HDR program with Sydney Health Ethics. 

For further information on study options and how to apply for a research degree visit the postgraduate research page.

The Visiting Fellow program allows the Sydney Health Ethics team to collaborate with scholars from various disciplines and expand our national and international research partnerships. Visiting scholars are provided with a workspace, computer, and library access. They are encouraged to present a work-in-progress seminar or participate in the SHE conversation series, and to engage fully in the network's academic activities, including events and workshops

The Sydeny Health Ethics Network accommodates self-funded Visiting Fellows. Applications from self-funded individuals are considered depending on the availability of space.

Sydney Health Ethics recognises the diversity of individuals engaged in research or work related to the philosophy of medicine, medical humanities, bioethics, and public health ethics. We invite applications from a broad range of researchers, including PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and academics, to visit our network. We also welcome applications from non-academic visiting professionals, provided they propose an applied research project relevant to our group's work.

Applications must include the following in one PDF document:

• Curriculum vitae and list of publications
• Research plan (maximum 1000 words), outlining the research, proposed activities/collaboration during visiting period and contribution to the work of the Centre
• Proposed dates of the visit
• Proposed Sponsor from SHE Network who would be responsible

For inquiries about visiting as a fellow at Sydney Health Ethics, please contact the appropriate sponsor from our academic team. When applying, use the subject line “Visiting Fellow Application”. Ensure you reach out well in advance to facilitate planning for the visit.

• Professor Ainsley Newson
• Associate Professor Morgan Carpenter
• Associate Professor Claire Hooker
• Associate Professor Julie Mooney-Somers
• Associate Professor Tamra Lysaght
• Dr Siun Gallagher
• Dr Kathryn MacKay
• Dr Diego Silva
• Dr Emily Saurman
• Dr Hojjat Soofi
  
• Dr Supriya Subramani
  
• Dr Gabriel Watts
• Dr Narcyz Ghinea

• Dr Sarah Heynemann
  
• Isabella Holmes
• Miriam Wiersma

• Dr Kari Pahlman

• Professor Warwick Anderson
• Professor Mark Arnold
• Dr Sarah Baldwin
• Professor Stacy Carter
• Professor Angus Dawson
• Dr Lisa Dive
• Dr Su-Yin Hor
• Professor David Isaacs
• Professor Ian Kerridge
• Associate Professor Stuart Lane
• Dr Edwina Light
• Professor Wendy Lipworth
• Associate Professor Paul Macneill
• Ms Katherine Moloney
• Ms Anne Preisz
• Associate Professor Michael Robertson
• Dr Camilla Scanlan
• Dr Linda Sheahan
• Dr George Skowronski
• Dr Jacqueline Stephens
• Dr Jane Williams
• Dr Sinead Prince
• Dr Kimberly Ivory

• Thanh Ly An 
• Sara Attinger 
• Miriam Wiersma
• Dr Stephanie Mantilla

• Katie Gabriel
• Kimberly Ross
• Anh Vu