Activities

The Bioethics Centre occupies the east corridor of the Academic Wing (South Wing) on the 8th floor of Dunedin Hospital.  This space is made up of Academic staff offices, an administration office, photocopy / document room, two postgraduate study rooms, a resource collection, and the Bioethics Seminar Room 827.

Raising community awareness is a vital part of the Centre's role, and open seminars draw audiences from a wide section of the community.  Staff are regularly in demand to give talks and presentations to interested groups.  The Centre holds a conference with New Zealand and international speakers and participants bi-annually in collaboration with the Health Research Council.

Bioethics Seminar

The Bioethics Seminar is held every Monday from 1.00-2.00pm during semester time.  It is an opportunity for people from different disciplines related to bioethics to present their material to a diverse audience comprising students, staff and members of the public.

Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (JBI)

The Centre produces the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry(JBI) in conjunction with the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law (AABHL). The JBI is a development of the New Zealand Bioethics Journal previously published at the Centre. The JBI is published by Springer Press four times a year and is circulated widely to a national and international audience. The Journal seeks to take a broad theoretical approach to bioethics, encompassing the intersections of ethics, social theory, philosophy, law and other related disciplines. The Journal publishes quality peer-reviewed articles from the core areas of conventional bioethics, such as research, clinical practice and the development of medical technology, and the interface of law and ethics, and critical analysis of specific social policies around the world with respect to their impact on the health and welfare of populations.

New Zealand Bioethics Conference

In the summer of alternate years the Centre convenes an international Bioethics conference in Dunedin, in collaboration with the Health Research Council of New Zealand. Each conference focuses on a theme. The most recent conference was Ethics After Harm, and was held January 29th-31st, 2010.

Postgraduate Group: Student Research Forum

The Student Research Forum meets once a week at 11am in the Bioethics Seminar Room.   The aim of the group is to establish a forum where students can come together in a relaxed and informal environment to discuss bioethics.  The group offers students an opportunity to present work in progress, to discuss topical issues, and to talk about issues arising from the research process.  From time to time staff will be asked to expand upon a topic of particular interest or concern to the students.

Resource Collection

The Centre holds a number of journals. The Centre also holds an extensive collection of reference books on bioethics and related topics from around the world. 

Other resource material is held in the Central, Law, Medical and Sciences Libraries at the University.