Current Sections: Ethics

Ethics Summer Studentships
The HRC makes available four Ethics Summer Studentships to be awarded each year.  The purpose of the studentship is to enable a student to train during the summer break with a research team. 

Four students were awarded Summer Studentships in 2009/2010.  A description of their research topics as well as the student's final reports can be read below.

Jed Horner – The University of Auckland Ethics Summer Studentship Supervisor - Professor Shanthi Ameratunga, School of Population Health, The University of Auckland Towards a politics of accountability in immigrant health & wellbeing: The ethical implications of equity in immigrant health research Immigration and resulting patterns of human (re)settlement are paradigmatic issues of our time (Kostakopoulou, 2001). Implicated in significant demographic change in modern nation-states and in radically transforming existing axes of social difference, including ethnicity, they herald new challenges in terms of monitoring and accounting for the health and wellbeing of increasingly diverse populations. Internationally, this dynamic has led to a coalescence of action and concern around immigrant health and wellbeing, which is rapidly gaining impetus. The recent World Health Assembly resolution calling on nation states, and other non-state actors, to recognise and uphold immigrants ‘right to health', represents a clarion call to action in this respect. Drawing on Aotearoa/New Zealand examples and an emergent literature base pointing to the need to take a ‘finer-grained' approach to inequities in health (McLafferty & Chakrabarti, 2009), which explicitly recognises the importance of immigration, this paper argues that the hitherto dominant definition of ‘equity in health', a concept firmly entrenched in the public health lexicon, needs to be augmented in order to have explicit regard to immigrant health and wellbeing. Whilst monitoring and accounting for patterns of health and wellbeing in increasingly diverse societies presents many challenges, it is essential to operationalise the core principles of public health. Addressing this challenge is an opportunity that should not be lost, especially in our current age of marked diversity heralded largely by immigration. To read the full report click here (PDF 1MB).

Talia Sellars – The University of Auckland Ethics Summer Studentship Supervisor – Associate Professor Tim Dare, Department of Philosophy, The University of Auckland Do Health Care Workers have an Obligation to their Patients to be Immunised against Influenza during times of Pandemic and if so, to what extent can that Obligation be justifiably enforced? There is a significant amount of evidence and studies which suggest that non-immunised Health Care Workers (HCWs) are vectors for transmission and carriage of the influenza virus. Consequently the influenza related deaths and illnesses of patients of the non-immunised HCWs are significantly higher than those of immunised HCWs. There is also evidence to suggest that it is not satisfactory for HCWs to abstain from work when they are ill with influenza because non-immunised HCWs can carry and transfer the influenza virus to at-risk patients even when the HCWs are asymptomatic. The Immunisation Advisory Centre of New Zealand recommends that all HCWs receive their influenza immunisation each year to protect themselves and their patients. However, during an influenza pandemic, those HCWs that work with certain patients can be mandatorily required to receive the influenza vaccine, and not simply recommended to receive it. As I will explain, this mandate can be defended by use of the Harm Principle which justifies (an appropriate level of) interference with an individual's liberty when harm is threatened to another individual. Objections to the mandate can be overcome with consideration of the Harm Principle, as well as the special obligations that HCWs have to not harm their patients, due to their role as HCWs. There may be concerns that implementation of this mandate will result in loss of HCWs during times of pandemic because some HCWs may not receive their influenza immunisation and consequently are required to abstain from work during this time. I will discuss the reasons why individuals do not receive their immunisations and explain how some of these reasons will not apply to HCWs, and how others can be overcome. To read the full report click here (PDF 586KB).

Matthew Hamilton – University of Otago Ethics Summer Studentship Supervisor – Professor Grant Gillett, Bioethics Centre, University of Otago Coercion and ‘discipline of self' in mental health recovery The purpose of this project was to further describe the gap that exists in mental health recovery between our common understanding of coercion as, an impingement on or a reduction of a person's autonomy, and the lived experience of coercion as constitutive. This report identifies how our common understanding of coercion arises then describes constitutive coercion using the philosopher Michel Foucault's concept of ‘Disciplines of the Self'. We conclude by describing therapeutic techniques that move away from our assumptions and towards a fuller understanding of how the patient's lived experience can empower the patient to create the life that they want for themselves. To read the full report click here (PDF 633KB).

Eric Yung-Nien Tan– AUT University Ethics Summer Studentship Supervisor – Dr Rosemary Godbold, School of Public Health & Psychological Studies (HY), AUT University A New Zealand and Chinese comparative ethical analysis for refusal of life sustaining treatment by adult patients This paper analyses the challenges that health practitioners may face when dealing with patient refusal of amputation or other potential life sustaining treatments. Reasons for refusal of treatment may include denial, stigma, internal values, panic, or fear of burden. The proliferation of immedicable diseases such as type II diabetes has seen lower limb amputations dramatically increase in the past decades. Despite advancements in healthcare practices and medicine, the number of amputations performed every year is still increasing. Therefore, it is imperative that both the patient and physician develop an acceptable treatment plan once necrosis has been diagnosed. With an emphasis on cross-cultural ideologies, literature will be reviewed to understand better the relationship between physicians and patients that affect decision-making. The differences between Chinese and Western ideologies will be examined to determine the extent of influence health practitioners have over patients, and to what extent persuasion exist within both spheres. The aim of this paper is to enhance understanding of healthcare ethics, scrutinise ethical frameworks between patient and health practitioners, utilise research to examine current international approaches to ethics-based judgements and the submission of a potential ethical model for New Zealand.  To read the full report click here  (PDF 936KB).

Ethics Summer Studentship 2010/2011
There are five Summer Studentships available for this year.  The topic areas on which to write a report are:

• The storage and access of health research data
• Indigenous People and cultural responsibility in research
• Alternative, complementary and traditional medicine
• Any other significant topic in health ethics.

Letters regarding details of this year's Ethics Summer Studentships have been distributed to Institutions.  For further information please contact Sandra Reid, Senior Advisor - Legal and Ethics, email: sreid@hrc.govt.nz.

Last Updated : 23 August 2010 14:40:33.
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