Conference on Accommodating Plural Values in Healthcare and Healthcare Policy, Monday 30 October, 2023

Monash Bioethics Centre will be hosting a one-day conference on Monday 30 October, 2023. The broad theme of this conference is: Accommodating plural values (mainly though not only religious values) in healthcare, especially in developing healthcare policy. The conference will approach this theme from both theoretical and practical/evidence-based perspectives. The conference will bring together professionals from diverse fields (including philosophy, bioethics, medicine and nursing) to discuss and explore issues related to the conference theme and its implications for healthcare practice and policy. The conference will also include a panel discussion exploring these issues from a range of perspectives.

This conference is part of the Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP190101597) on ‘Religion, pluralism, and healthcare practice: a philosophical assessment’. The project team includes Justin Oakley (Monash University), Steve Clarke (Charles Sturt University), Tony Coady (University of Melbourne), Julian Savulescu (Oxford University), Dominic Wilkinson (Oxford University), and Lauren Notini (Monash University). This project aims to develop a systematic approach to accommodating religious values and practices in healthcare. Current approaches are often ad hoc and discriminatory, and many countries are becoming more religiously diverse, so a systematic approach to this is needed.

The conference will include the following speakers: Clare Delany (University of Melbourne, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Eastern Health), Paul Hammat (Royal Children’s Hospital), Kathryn MacKay (Sydney Health Ethics, The University of Sydney), Margaret O’Connor (Monash University), Justin Oakley (Monash University), Michael Parker (Ethox Centre, University of Oxford), Fiona Patten (Former Leader of the Reason Party), Julian Savulescu (Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore), Ivapene Seiuli (Health Care Consumers Association), Michelle Taylor-Sands (Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne) and Dominic Wilkinson (Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford). Margaret O’Connor and Fiona Patten will speak about their experiences with the development of public policy and law on voluntary assisted dying in Victoria, and how plural values (religious and otherwise) were accommodated in this process.

This event is co-sponsored by the Practical and Public Ethics Research Group and the Future of the Professions Research Group at Charles Sturt University.

Date/time

The conference will be held on Monday 30 October, 2023, between 9am-5pm.

Discounted parking is available at Wilsons Collins Place Car Park, 28 Flinders Lane (underneath the Sofitel Hotel)

To register

This conference will be recorded and shared online (live stream via Zoom and after the event) with conference registrants. This is a free event, although spots for attending in person are limited. Catering will be provided.

Please register for this conference (for both in person and online registrations) by 5pm Thursday October 25, 2023 at the following link: https://forms.gle/1k3WrCujSAWf433T6

For enquiries about this event, contact Lauren Notini: lauren.notini@monash.edu

• Link to conference program, talk titles and abstracts, and speaker bios. LINK HERE