Who owns you?
The standard legal position is that there is no ownership in human tissue – so you can’t buy, sell or leave in your will, your old dead bowling arm, your corpse, your brain – even your eggs or your sperm. And while it might come as no surprise to learn that no-one else owns your body, it occasionally causes dismay to learn that not even you do! And this has led to a few tricky problems over the years.
Join Sascha Callaghan to learn about property in the body – and what would happen if you wanted to use the sperm of your recently deceased partner to make a baby, or sue a clinic for accidentally destroying the last of your fertile eggs, or to get a stake in research using your genes – or if someone steals your fetus-in-a-bottle (true story – details on the night.)
BIO
Sascha Callaghan loves mulling over difficult questions. The more complex the better. And when it comes to ethics, she doesn’t believe there’s such thing as a cut and dry approach – we live in a complicated world, and ethical decision-making reflects that.
A lawyer by trade, Sascha joined academia after pursuing a PhD in mental health law. She has published widely in the area of health care decision-making, mental health and cognitive impairment. She’s also interested in reproduction law and medical treatment in pregnancy. She is the member of the Ethics of Clinical Practice Committee for Sydney Local Health District, and a member of a number of research collaboration networks including the Sydney Health Policy Network and the Network for Bodies Organs and Tissues.
6:30 PM @Mojo Record Bar, 73 York St, Sydney | Entrance over 18
Also speaking at Mojo Record Bar Bar at 8:00 pm is Megan Le Masurier
