Associate Professor Colin Gavaghan

Director of the Emerging Technologies

Leading international scholar in medical law and ethics Associate Professor Colin Gavaghan is the first New Zealand Law Foundation–sponsored Director in Emerging Technologies at the University of Otago Faculty of Law.

Dr Gavaghan, who until now has held the position of Lecturer in Medical Law and Ethics at the University of Glasgow's School of Law, heads the newly-established Centre for Law and Policy in Emerging Technologies, the only New Zealand-based research centre that will examine the legal, ethical and policy issues around new technologies. These include biotechnology, nanotechnology, alternative bio-energy, information and communication technologies, robotics and artificial intelligence.

Books

Defending the Genetic Supermarket: the law and ethics of selecting the next generation, RoutledgeCavendish, 2007.

Chapters

'Regulating after Parfit: Welfare, Identity and the UK Embryology Law', in Goodwin, Koops and Leenes, eds. Dimensions of Technology Regulation, Wolf Legal Publishers, 2010

'No gene for fate? Luck, Harm and Justice in Andrew Niccol's Gattaca', in Bioethics at the Movies, Shapshay, S., ed., Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

'General End of Life Rights and Ethical Issues' in Tolley's Finance & Law for the Older Client (last revised 2010)

Articles

Right problem, wrong solution: A pro-choice response to 'expressivist' concerns about preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (2007) 16(1): 20-35.

A Tarasoff for Europe? A European Human Rights perspective on the duty to protect, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry (2007); 30: 255-267.

'End of life decision making in the context of UK law', Revista de Direito Medico e da Saude (2008) vol. 14, April-June, 111-130.

'Disability, identity and choice: embryo testing and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008', Contemporary Issues in Law (2009); 9(3): 133-153

'You can't handle the truth; medical paternalism and prenatal alcohol use' Journal of Medical Ethics (2009); 35(5): 300-303

'A whole new ... you? "Personal identity", emerging technologies and the law', IDIS (2010); 3: 423-434

Contact Details

Tel: 03 477 8852
Office: 7th Floor - 7C10
Email: colin.gavaghan@otago.ac.nz