December2017

Minutes of the 2017 AGM

The 2017 AGM was held in Sydney on 20 November. The Minuteshave been sent in a separate email to all members. Of particular note is that Bernadette Richards was elected to a second term as President (unopposed), Lynn Woodward was elected to a second term as Secretary (unopposed), Jaklin Eliott and Clare Delany were welcomed as new Committee members. Outgoing Committee Members Ian Kerridge and Lynn Gillam, and outgoing Stream Co-Leader Ainsley Newson were thanked for their significant contributions to AABHL over many years.

The next AGM will be held during the 2018 Conference in Townsville, Queensland (23-26 September, 2018)

AABHL Streams Activities

The first meeting of the AABHL empirical ethics stream was held on Monday 13th November at Sydney Health Ethics at the University of Sydney. The event was co-supported by AABHL, Sydney Health Ethics and National University of Singapore. Approximately 20 people attended from Australia and Singapore; Professor Alan Cribb from Kings College London, who has been involved in leadership of empirical bioethics in the UK for many years, attended as a special guest. Seven papers selected from submitted abstracts were presented and discussed, and the day ended with consideration of the purpose and activities of the stream. The group were enthusiastic about continuing the stream to allow opportunities for methodological discussion and networking between empirical ethics researchers in the region. To sign up to the empirical ethics email list, go to

The Clinical Ethics Stream workshop was held on 20 November at the University of Sydney. Twenty-nine people attended from around Australia and New Zealand. It was a interactive day of discussion, focussed on three topics: crowd-funding medical care, communication, and making clinical ethics “everyone’s business”. The next stream meeting will be held on 22 Sep 2018, in association with the Townsville AABHL conference. Interested members should contact either Vicki Xafis or Ros Mcdougall;

Positions vacant

The University of Sydney is advertising for a Research Associate (Level A) role to focus on legal and ethical aspects of genomic data sharing; incorporating empirical research with expert stakeholders. The closing date is 11.30pm on 7 December.

The further particulars and link to the application form can be found here:

Calls for papers

Now until deadline 15 January 2018 Special issue on Environment and Health in the journal Health

Papers are invited that address one or more of the following:
* Social theories of environment and human health and/or wellbeing.
* Climate change and human health.
* Human rights, environment and health.
* Environment and public health
* Public policy and/or governance on health and environment
* Beyond human impacts: rethinking environmental health.

Papers may be submitted electronically to the Manuscript Central website at:

Now until deadline of 1 March 2018Proposals are invited for the twenty-seventh volume in the monograph series to be published by the Sociology of Health and Illness in conjunction with Wiley-Blackwell.
The monograph will be up to 85,000 words in length comprising up to 12 peer-reviewed papers and will appear both as a special issue of the journal and in book form. The planned publication date is December 2020 for online publication, and January 2021 for the print issue. Agreed proofs will appear online prior to the print issue.

The proposal, including the short biographies, should be no more than 2,000 words in total.
Proposals can be discussed informally with the Monograph Editor (Ian Rees Jones <mailto:>) before submitting the final document.
Finalised proposals should be sent to <mailto:> by 5:00 pm on 1st March 2018. The editorial Board of Sociology of Health and Illness will review proposals March and the outcome will be notified by 30th March 2018.

Now until deadline of 30 April 2018proposals are invited forinclusion in a Special issue of the QUT Law Review. Contemporary Legal and Ethical Challenges in Children’s Health:

Reproduction, Technology, Capacity, Medicine and Violence

Articles are blind peer reviewed and must be 5000–8000 words inlength, excluding footnotes. The style guide follows the current edition of the Australian Guide to LegalCitation. Further details about the journal and author guidelines are available at the QUT Law Review website:

The issue is expected to be published by October 2018.

To discuss a potential submission, please contact the Guest Editor, Dr Malcolm Smith:

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Seminars, Conferences, Meetings, Workshops etc

Thu 7 Dec , 2.00 –4.00 pmClinical Ethics Forum - Healthcare Disaster Ethics -

Claffy Lecture Theatre, Sydney Hospital, Macquarie Street, Sydney

Due to limited seating, please RSVP to:

Friday 1 December.

Presentation by Professor Angus Dawson

Followed by a panel discussion:

•Dr Richard Morris –Triage. The Ethical Implications

•Lyn Gilbert –The Ebola epidemic in West Africa

•Doris Lam –The SARS outbreak in Hong Kong

July 2018

ICCEC Jul 28 2018The ICCEC2018 website has been updated with confirmed speakers Profiles to follow.

Resources

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission Annual Report

University of Toronto Law Journal
Volume 67, Number 4, Fall 2017

NSWGuardianship reform proposals.provided by Bill Madden (see his blog

The NSW Law Reform Commission has published a set of draft proposals on reform of guardianship laws, ahead of its final report. Submissions can be made before 9 February 2018.

The proposals include:

  • NSW should have a new Act called the Assisted Decision-Making Act that provides a formal framework for both supported decision-making and (as a last resort) substitute decision-making.
  • The new Act should provide for two types of formal supported decision-making arrangements: personal support agreements and tribunal support orders.
  • The new Act should provide for two types of formal substitute decision-making arrangements as a last resort: enduring representation agreements (to replace the current arrangements for enduring guardians and enduring powers of attorney) and representation orders (to replace the current arrangements for guardians and financial managers).
  • The new Act should not allow the Tribunal to make plenary (or unlimited) orders (as it currently can for guardianship). Rather, the new Act should require all agreements and orders to specify the particular personal, healthcare, financial and/or restrictive practices functions for a supporter or representative.
  • New decision-making principles should require representatives to give effect to a person’s will and preferences wherever possible rather than a person’s “best interests”.

Journal of Bioethical Inquiry

Please forward any concerns you may have regarding receipt of your complimentary copy of the JBI to Bronwen Morrell at

As a member of AABHL, you also have access to electronic copies of JBI–

  1. go to
  2. click on Members
  3. then Members Home
  4. add you username (email) and password
  5. click Login
  6. click where it says CLICK HERE TO ACCESS YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION OF JBI
  7. to log out, look to RHS panel, click Logout

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