The Phil Walker Memorial Ethics Lecture
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.
Venue
No right answer? Navigating ethical challenges in medical research
Often in research, we are confronted by ethical dilemmas where conflicting values need to be balanced – can the price of research be justified by its potential benefits? Whilst there are guidelines and structures in place to help us consider these issues, it can be a challenge to find a path that aligns with our own values and those of society.
This is especially true when research takes us to the frontier of medical practice. One of the most important frontiers today is the modification of human genomes - the deliberate introduction of genetic changes that will be passed on to future generations.
As CEO of the National Health and Medical Research Council, Professor Anne Kelso AO oversaw a review of the scientific, social and ethical issues raised by mitochondrial donation, a form of heritable genome modification intended to prevent severe mitochondrial disease.
Join Professor Kelso, as she talks about her personal experience navigating ethical challenges as a researcher and at the National Health and Medical Research Council.
RSVP: For catering purposes please RSVP by Thursday 1 August 2024
Professor Anne Kelso AO
Professor Anne Kelso AO spent many years as a biomedical researcher in the field of immunology, later also serving as Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology and then Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza.
In 2015, she was appointed CEO of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Government’s lead agency for funding health and medical research. In addition to research funding, NHMRC is responsible for national codes of research ethics and integrity, regulation of research using human embryos and the production of public and environmental health guidelines. As CEO, Professor Kelso led significant reform of NHMRC’s grant program and gender equity policies, and oversaw the provision of advice to government on mitochondrial donation, gain-of-function research and other issues.
Professor Kelso completed her term at NHMRC in July 2023. She holds an honorary professorial position at the University of Melbourne.