Ethics Research Program

The research in the ACES Ethics program has been to develop an integrated position on the development of bionics and human health.

The Ethics program has focussed on the social and ethical issues related to medical bionics, these include issues arising from clinical trials in medical bionics, and the ways in which bionic devices potentially affect our understanding of ourselves, and our understanding of health and illness. These considerations are clearly important in order to make progress beyond the laboratory and for the social uptake of new devices or treatments. The work closely links to the ACES Bionics program, which utilises advances in nanotechnology to develop a more effective Biology-Electronic interface; an approach that is applicable to the development of next generation wearable and implantable devices.

The Ethics Research Team

Professor Susan Dodds

ACES Ethics Program Leader; Dean of Arts at the University of Tasmania
(Susan.Dodds@utas.edu.au); phone: +61 (3) 6226 7843.

Susan’s research explores the intersections of ethics, political philosophy, moral psychology, feminist theory and public policy. Susan has published extensively on issues relating to bioethics, deliberative democracy, relational autonomy and reproductive technology. In addition to her research for the ACES Ethics program, she is also a CI on an ARC Discovery Project (With Catriona Mackenzie and Wendy Rogers) Vulnerability, Autonomy and Justice DP11012272. In 2012, Susan was invited by the Greg Combet, Minister for Industry and Innovation to become the Chair of the National Enabling Technologies Strategy Stakeholder Advisory Council.

Dr Frederic Gilbert

Frederic has a fixed-term full-time appointment as Associate Program Leader-Research Fellow within the Ethics & Bionics/Nanomedicine program. His current research interests concentrate on the ethical issues that arise within the overlapping fields of bionics and neuronanomedicine, principally the challenges to conception of Identity, Self and Enhancement posed by novel technologies developments in the area of brain implant.

Click here for "5mins with Frederic Gilbert".

Eliza Goddard

 Research associate/PhD candidate. Thesis:The Bionic Self—Implications of Bionics for Selfhood and Social Relations. Eliza’s research explores the social and ethical implications of these emerging nanobionic technologies. By developing materials and devices that can conduct electricity with knowledge about neural or sensory pathways, a range of new treatments are being developed or considered. These novel treatments range from external ‘wearable’ devices, that can assist in reducing injury to ligaments, through to the ‘bionic ear” (cochlear implants that are implanted in the ear to allow stimulation of the aural nerves of people with hearing loss) and early research on the ‘bionic eye’; or to implants aimed at repairing spinal nerve damage or preventing epileptic seizures. The project explores the philosophical and ethical issue of the significance of bionic implants (especially brain implants) for our understanding of selfhood and agency.

Ethics Program Projects
 

Challenges to conceptions of mind, self and identity posed by developments in bionics.

The ethical significance of bionics for selfhood and social relations is an important part of the ACES Ethics Program. The range of issues raises by the use bionics and wearable nanodevices for human health and enhanced human capacities are majors. Identify and analyse many issues in relation to the impact of novel electromaterials on self or identify is crucial to refine approaches leading to responsible science.

Evaluation of Research Ethics Guideline

ACES Ethics program conducts research to evaluate ethics guideline (e.g. National Statement on Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans) to assess appropriateness for clinical trials of novel nanomedical and other bionics devices treatments.

Design and development of a public engagement, deliberative event on nanomedicine

In order for nanotechnologies to achieve their potential, researchers need to understand and be responsive to community concerns, expectations and hopes for these developing technologies. In 2012 ACES Ethics program researchers will work with DIISTRE and the ACES Director to design, develop and deliver a deliberative event on clinical trials of medical bionics In preparation for this event, research on public engagement, deliberative democracy and public trust in science has been completed as has research on the role of journalism in engaging the public on issues in innovative technology.

ACES Ethics Publications

•  Dodds, S (Accepted) Trust, accountability and participation: conditions and constraints on ‘new’ democratic models’, in The Future of Public Participation, Edna Einsiedel and Kieran O’Doherty (eds) UBC Press.
• Gilbert, F., (2012), The Burden of Normality: From 'chronically ill' to 'symptom free'. New Ethical challenges for Deep Brain Stimulation postoperative treatment, Journal of Medical Ethics. Online First doi:10.1136/medethics-2011-100044
• Gilbert, F., Harris, A., and Kapsa, R., (Forthcoming) Efficacy Testing as a Primary Purpose of Phase 1 Clinical Trials: Is it Applicable to First-in-Human Bionics and Optogenetics Trials? American Journal of Bioethics: Neuroscience.
• Gilbert, F., and Partridge, P., (Forthcoming) The need to tackle concussion in Australian football codes, The Medical Journal of Australia.
• Gilbert, F., and Baertschi, B., (2011) Neuroenhancement: Much ado about Nothing?, American Journal of Bioethics: Neuroscience, Volume 2, Number 4, 45-47
• Gilbert, F., (Forthcoming) Nano-Bionics Devices for Purpose of Cognitive Enhancement: Toward a Preliminary Ethical Framework, In Andreas Franke and Elisabeth Hildt (eds), Cognitive Enhancement, Springer.
• Gilbert, F., (2011), Working while under the influence of performance enhancing drugs: is one “more responsible”?, American Journal of Bioethics: Neuroscience. Volume 2, Number 3, 57-59.
• Gilbert, F., and Ovadia, D., (2011) Deep brain stimulation in the media: over-optimistic media portrayals calls for a new strategy involving journalists and scientifics in the ethical debate, Journal of Integrative in Neuroscience, 5 : 16, doi:10.3389/fnint.2011.00016
• Kyle R, & Dodds, Dodds 2010, Inside, outside: Nanobionics and human bodily experience in K. L. Kjølberg and F. Wickson (eds.) NANO meets MACRO: Social Perspectives on Nano Scale Sciences and Technologies PAN Stanford; pp. 263-282, ISBN 978-981-4267-05-02)
  Kyle R., & Dodds S., 2009, Avoiding empty rhetoric: Why and when to engage publics in debates about nanotechnologies. Science and Engineering Ethics 15 (1); pp 81-96.
   

Public Outreach & Community Engagement

Adelaide Festival of Ideas 2011 “Three Technologies that Will Change the Way we Live”(Susan Dodds) Royal Institute of Australia (RiAus), organised in association with the Department of Innovation, Industry Science and Research, through its National Enabling Technologies Public Awareness and Community Engagement (NETS-Pace) branch.

“Ethical Perspectives on Policy Development” (Susan Dodds) as part of the Water and Nanotechnology — Who Chooses panel discussion at the RiAus, Adelaide 2010. Organised in association with DIISR, NETS-Pace and the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law Conference.

“Wollongong Nanodialogue on Bionics” organised as collaboration between ACES and DIISR NETS-PACE branch, 2009.