Big-Picture Bioethics: policy-making and liberal democracy. We live an era of rapid growth in biotechnology generating new and difficult ethical questions that need to be tackled by bioethicists and politicians. This project goes beyond typical approaches in bioethics to explore the "big picture": how policies are generated in ethically-contentious domains. It is important to examine how the values of different stakeholders are reflected in such processes to ensure that they are in accordance wi ....Big-Picture Bioethics: policy-making and liberal democracy. We live an era of rapid growth in biotechnology generating new and difficult ethical questions that need to be tackled by bioethicists and politicians. This project goes beyond typical approaches in bioethics to explore the "big picture": how policies are generated in ethically-contentious domains. It is important to examine how the values of different stakeholders are reflected in such processes to ensure that they are in accordance with Australia's commitment to fostering a multicultural, pluralistic, democratic society. This project will produce practical recommendations for refining public consultation in healthcare policy-making through an examination of three relevant contentious case studies in Australia with comparison to Canada.Read moreRead less
Addiction, moral identity and moral agency: Integrating theoretical and empirical approaches. By clarifying and evaluating scientific claims about the moral impacts of addiction on the judgment and practices of drug addicted persons and by investigating the perspectives of users and treatment professionals, our project will contribute to the development of ethical and effective public policy, treatment and education programs in the addictions area, thus helping to address the causes and reduce t ....Addiction, moral identity and moral agency: Integrating theoretical and empirical approaches. By clarifying and evaluating scientific claims about the moral impacts of addiction on the judgment and practices of drug addicted persons and by investigating the perspectives of users and treatment professionals, our project will contribute to the development of ethical and effective public policy, treatment and education programs in the addictions area, thus helping to address the causes and reduce the impact of biological, social and environmental factors which diminish life potential in drug addicted persons. The innovative features of this project will enhance Australia's international reputation in bioethics and moral psychology, extend the reach of experimental philosophy, and facilitate future interdisciplinary work.Read moreRead less
Gender Inequities in Health Research: Towards a New Regulatory Framework. This project will benefit Australian women by identifying better and fairer ways for the legal system to ensure that health research performed in Australia provides meaningful information about the significance of new health treatments for Australian women. The research undertaken in this project will make recommendations for the development of Australian laws and policies that will promote and maintain good health by enco ....Gender Inequities in Health Research: Towards a New Regulatory Framework. This project will benefit Australian women by identifying better and fairer ways for the legal system to ensure that health research performed in Australia provides meaningful information about the significance of new health treatments for Australian women. The research undertaken in this project will make recommendations for the development of Australian laws and policies that will promote and maintain good health by encouraging equal participation of men and women in health research and analysis by gender of research results. This is particularly important given the ageing of the Australian population and the greater longevity of women compared to men.Read moreRead less
Allocating scarce HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drugs in resource-constrained countries: using modelling to develop tools and analyse consequences of ethics and HIV-epidemiology. This project will benefit communities in some of the poorest countries of the world, suffering greatly from the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This research is important and timely for these nations in deciding how to distribute the limited treatment in an ethical manner to address treatment principles of these countries. However, the me ....Allocating scarce HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drugs in resource-constrained countries: using modelling to develop tools and analyse consequences of ethics and HIV-epidemiology. This project will benefit communities in some of the poorest countries of the world, suffering greatly from the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This research is important and timely for these nations in deciding how to distribute the limited treatment in an ethical manner to address treatment principles of these countries. However, the methods developed can also be applied to other diseases in different regions and people, such as Australian aborigines to increase their quality of health. Specifically, an epidemic of Chlamydia is widespread amongst the aboriginal communities of Australia's Northern Territory. Tools developed in this project will be easily adaptable to address control measures for Chlamydia among this population. Read moreRead less
Globalisation and Biomedicine: The Harmonisation of Local and Global Regulatory Demands. The pursuit of biotechnological research and development requires a clear and effective regulatory structure at both the global and national level. Australia's strengths in biotechnology and biomedicine and the Federal Government's strategy to support and promote Australian expertise demand the formulation of appropriate regulatory structures. This project will assess these issues with a focus on globalisato ....Globalisation and Biomedicine: The Harmonisation of Local and Global Regulatory Demands. The pursuit of biotechnological research and development requires a clear and effective regulatory structure at both the global and national level. Australia's strengths in biotechnology and biomedicine and the Federal Government's strategy to support and promote Australian expertise demand the formulation of appropriate regulatory structures. This project will assess these issues with a focus on globalisaton, Australia's federal legal system, the patient in society and health law, and the scope of effective legal regulation. The project will provide insights into and a theoretical understanding of existing global and national legal regulation of this sector as well as assisting in the formulation of future regulatory measures.Read moreRead less