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Contact Details

Phone
64 3 471 6127
Email
grant.gillett@otago.ac.nz
Position
Professor of Biomedical Ethics
Department
Bioethics Centre
Qualifications
MSc MB ChB(Auck) DPhil(Oxf) FRACS FRSNZ
Research summary
Psychiatry, philosophy, and neuroscience
Teaching

I teach in Early learning in medicine, cognitive neuroscience, and graduate papers in Bioethics.

Memberships
  • Fellow of the Royal Society
  • Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Psychiatrists
  • Fellow of The Hastings Center

Research

My research ranges quite widely in Bioethics, philosophy, and neuroscience. In Bioethics I work on end of life care, complementary and alternative medicine, autonomy, and the patient's journey. In Neuroethics I have written widely on brain birth, brain death, PVS, and minimally conscious states, and issues of free will identity and responsibility.

My work in neuroethics arose from research in Philosophy of psychiatry focusing on the nature of mental disorder, psychopathy, and dissociative disorders. I examine these topics through Post-structuralist philosophy, an exploration of the patient's voice, post-colonialism, and human subjectivity and I have authored Subjectivity and being somebody: neuroethics and human identity, Bioethics in the Clinic (Johns Hopkins University Press) The mind and its discontents (Oxford Univ Press) Reasonable Care (Bristol Press), Representation, Meaning and Thought (Oxford University Press) and co-authored The Discursive Mind (Sage) as well as numerous articles in a variety of international journals such as Philosophy, British Medical Journal, Lancet, Philosophical Psychology, Inquiry, Mind, Journal of Medical Ethics, Journal of medicine and Philosophy, Consciousness and cognition, Brain, Philosophy, psychiatry and psychology, and Bioethics.

Publications

Gillett, G. (2008). Subjectivity and being somebody: Human identity and Neuroethics. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic, 286p.

Gillett, G. (2009). Intention, autonomy, and brain events. Bioethics, 23(6), 330-339. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01726.x

Franz, E. A., & Gillett, G. (2011). John Hughlings Jackson's evolutionary neurology: A unifying framework for cognitive neuroscience. Brain, 134, 3114-3120. doi: 10.1093/brain/awr218

Gillett, G. R., Honeybul, S., Ho, K. M., & Lind, C. R. P. (2010). Neurotrauma and the RUB: Where tragedy meets ethics and science. Journal of Medical Ethics, 36, 727-730. doi: 10.1136/jme.2010.037424

Gillett, G. (2009). The mind and its discontents (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press, 432p.

Gillett, G. (2008). Subjectivity and being somebody: Human identity and Neuroethics. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic, 286p.

Authored Book - Research

Gillett, G. (2009). Intention, autonomy, and brain events. Bioethics, 23(6), 330-339. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01726.x

Journal - Research Article

Franz, E. A., & Gillett, G. (2011). John Hughlings Jackson's evolutionary neurology: A unifying framework for cognitive neuroscience. Brain, 134, 3114-3120. doi: 10.1093/brain/awr218

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. R., Honeybul, S., Ho, K. M., & Lind, C. R. P. (2010). Neurotrauma and the RUB: Where tragedy meets ethics and science. Journal of Medical Ethics, 36, 727-730. doi: 10.1136/jme.2010.037424

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. (2009). The mind and its discontents (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press, 432p.

Authored Book - Research

Gillett, G. (2010). Intentional action, moral responsibility and psychopaths. In L. Malatesti & J. McMillan (Eds.), Responsibility and psychopathy: Interfacing law, psychiatry, and philosophy. (pp. 283-298). New York: Oxford University Press.

Chapter in Book - Research

Harrigan, M., & Gillett, G. (2009). Hunting good will in the wilderness. In D. O'Connor & B. Purves (Eds.), Decision-making, personhood and dementia: Exploring the interface. (pp. 47-57). London: Jessica Kingsley.

Chapter in Book - Research

Gillett, G. (2007). Psychosurgery and neuroimplantation: Changing what is deep within a person. In R. E. Ashcroft, A. Dawson, H. Draper & J. R. McMillan (Eds.), Principles of health care ethics. (2nd ed.) (pp. 811-817). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Chapter in Book - Research

Gillett, G. (2007). The paralogisms of psychosis. In M. C. Chung, K. W. M. (Bill) Fulford & G. Graham (Eds.), Reconceiving schizophrenia. (pp. 151-165). New York: Oxford University Press.

Chapter in Book - Research

McMillan, J., & Gillett, G. (2011). A Husserlian account of mental distance and unconscious desire. Journal for Philosophy & Psychiatry, (April). Retrieved from http://www.jfpp.org/80+M544f671c0ee.html

Journal - Research Article

Walsh, B., & Gillett, G. (2011). A post-structuralist view of evidence-based medicine (EBM): What EBM contributes to philosophy. International Journal of Person Centered Medicine, 1(2), 223-231. doi: 10.5750/ijpcm.v1i2.62

Journal - Research Article

Walsh, B., & Gillett, G. (2011). Is evidence-based medicine positivist? International Journal of Person Centered Medicine, 1(2), 232-239. doi: 10.5750/ijpcm.v1i2.63

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. (2011). Minimally conscious states, deep brain stimulation, and what is worse than futility. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 8(2), 145-149. doi: 10.1007/s11673-011-9292-4

Journal - Research Article

Honeybul, S., Gillett, G. R., Ho, K. M., & Lind, C. R. P. (2011). Neurotrauma and the rule of rescue. Journal of Medical Ethics, 37, 707-710. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2011-100081

Journal - Research Article

Honeybul, S., Ho, K. M., Lind, C. R. P., & Gillett, G. R. (2011). Surgical intervention for severe head injury: Ethical considerations when performing life-saving but non-restorative surgery. Acta Neurochirurgica, 153(5), 1105-1110. doi: 10.1007/s00701-011-0974-9

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. (2011). The gold-plated leucotomy standard and deep brain stimulation. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 8, 35-44. doi: 10.1007/s11673-010-9281-z

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G., & Tamatea, A. J. (2012). The warrior gene: Epigenetic considerations. New Genetics & Society, 31(1), 41-53. doi: 10.1080/14636778.2011.597982

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. (2010). The multiaxial, multi-layered reality that is mental disorder. Association for the Advancement of Philosophy & Psychiatry Bulletin, 17(1), 5-7.

Journal - Research Other

Gillett, G. (2009). Indigenous knowledges: Circumspection, metaphysics, and scientific ontologies. Sites, 6(1), 97-115.

Journal - Research Article

Collyns, O., Gillett, G., & Darlow, B. (2009). Overlap of premature birth and permissible abortion. Journal of Medical Ethics, 35(6), 343-347. doi: 10.1136/jme.2008.028928

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. (2009). The evolution of the human soul. Colloquium, 41(2), 165-180.

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. (2009). The layering of the psyche: Philosophy, psychiatry, and difference. Journal of Mind & Behavior, 30(4), 205-228.

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. R. (2009). The subjective brain, identity, and neuroethics. American Journal of Bioethics, 9(9), 5-13. doi: 10.1080/15265160903090058

Journal - Research Article

Gillett, G. (2009). When two are born as one: The ethics of separating conjoined twins. Journal of Law & Medicine, 17(2), 184-189.

Journal - Research Other

Gillett, G. (2009). Whose best interests? Advance directives and clinical discretion. Journal of Law & Medicine, 16(5), 751-758.

Journal - Research Other

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