Professor Phil Walker made a tremendous contribution to the Faculty of Medicine and leaves behind a great legacy. He was intensely proud of his surgical profession and his role in the Faculty. He was a passionate advocate for academic surgery, widely regarded as an exceptional clinician and surgeon, an excellent teacher and an outstanding researcher.

True leaders in academic medicine must possess all of these qualities and Professor Walker was richly endowed with these traits. He had a keen interest in ethics and values in medicine. This lecture series came about through his generous bequest to the Discipline of Medical Ethics, Law and Professionalism at UQ.

The Phil Walker memorial ethics lecture 2022

Tue 13 Sep 2022 5:00pm7:30pm

Genome editing in Australia

Genome editing enables targeted and precise changes to be made to DNA. Its potential for providing new forms of medical treatment for otherwise untreatable diseases is enormous. However, it also raises many ethical and social considerations, which are currently being investigated by several international bodies.

Whilst these scientific bodies collectively support the development of genome editing technology for disease treatment, they also have concerns about its impact on future generations. In Australia, significant law reform would be required to legalise heritable human genome editing.

Watch the recap below of the Phil Walker Memorial Lecture as Law and Genetics Expert, Emeritus Professor Dianne Nicol discusses the ethical repercussions of human genome editing, Australian community engagement on the issue, and the legal and policy implications that emerge from this.


About Emeritus Professor Dianne Nicol

Dianne NicolIn 2021, Dianne Nicol stood down from her positions as Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Law and Genetics at the University of Tasmania in Australia, but continues in an emeritus role.

Dianne has a background in science as well as law, with a PhD in cell biology. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Her current research focuses primarily on the regulation and governance of genomic data sharing and personalized medicine, including genome editing, stem cell science and other innovative health technologies.

She is Chair of the National Health and Medical Research Council Embryo Research Licensing Committee and co-lead of the Regulatory and Ethics Workstream of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health.​