Assoc. Prof. Justin Oakley - professional profile
Director, Centre for Human Bioethics;
Deputy Head, School of Philosophy and Bioethics
Faculty of Arts
Monash University
Tel.: +61 3 9905 4277
Fax.: +61 3 9905 3279
Room: W920
Email: Justin.Oakley@arts.monash.edu.au
Research Interests
- Bioethics
- Ethical theory
- Moral psychology
- And the connections between these fields.
Current Research
I am engaged in ongoing work on virtue ethics and its applications, drawing on my book Virtue Ethics and Professional Roles (co-authored with Dean Cocking), to professional integrity, whistleblowing, conflicts of interest in clinical practice and research, reproductive ethics, and public policy. I recently completed a project on ethical issues in public reporting of clinician performance information, resulting in several articles and a collection (co-edited with Steve Clarke), Informed Consent and Clinician Accountability: The Ethics of Report Cards on Surgeon Performance. For our research on this topic, Steve Clarke and I were awarded the 2004 Australian Catholic University Eureka Prize for Research in Ethics, Australia's premier award for ethics research. I am currently working on a project developing a virtue ethics approach to the moral significance of genetic parenthood and the regulation of assisted reproduction.
Recent Publications
Books:
Bioethics (International Library of Essays in Public and Professional Ethics, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2009 (edited collection).
Informed Consent and Clinician Accountability: The Ethics of Report Cards on Surgeon Performance, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007 (co-edited with Steve Clarke).
Virtue Ethics and Professional Roles Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001 (pbk. 2006) (with Dean Cocking).
Morality and the Emotions, London, Routledge, 1992 (pbk. 1993).
Chapters in Books:
‘A Virtue ethics approach’, in Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer (eds), A Companion to Bioethics, 2nd ed., Oxford, Blackwell, 2009.
‘Surgeon report cards and patient safety’ (with Steve Clarke), in Judith Healy and Paul Dugdale (eds.), Safety First: Regulating Patient Care, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2009.
‘Professional Interpretation and Judgment, and the Integrity of Lawyers’ (with Dean Cocking), in Tim Dare and W. Bradley Wendel (eds.), Legal Ethics: Professional Ethics and Personal Integrity, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009.
‘Monash University Centre for Human Bioethics: a short history’, in Graham Oppy, Nick Trakakis, Lynda Burns, Steve Gardner and Fiona Leigh (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand, Monash ePress, 2009.
‘Patients and disclosure of surgical risk’, in Richard Ashcroft, Angus Dawson, Heather Draper and John McMillan (eds.), Principles of Health Care Ethics, 2nd ed. , London, John Wiley, 2007.
‘An ethical analysis of the defensive surgery objection to individual surgeon report cards’, in Steve Clarke and Justin Oakley (eds.), Informed Consent and Clinician Accountability: The ethics of report cards on surgeon performance, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 243-54.
‘Virtue theory’, in Richard Ashcroft, Angus Dawson, Heather Draper and John McMillan (eds.), Principles of Health Care Ethics (2nd ed), London , John Wiley, 2007.
‘Medical Ethics, History of: Australia and New Zealand’, in Stephen G. Post (ed.), Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Vol. 3, 3rd ed., New York, Macmillan, 2003, pp. 1553-1555.
‘Applied Ethics’, in John V. Canfield (ed.), Routledge History of Philosophy, Volume 10: The Philosophy of the English Speaking World in the Twentieth Century, London, Routledge, 1997, pp. 364-396.
‘The Morality of Breaching Confidentiality to Protect Others’, in Leila Shotton (ed.), Health Care Law and Ethics, Katoomba, Social Science Press, 1997, pp. 109-31.
Refereed Journal Articles:
‘Reproductive cloning and arguments from potential’, Monash Bioethics Review 25, no. 1, January 2006, pp. 42-7.
‘Public disclosure of surgeon-specific report cards – current status of the debate’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery 75, November 2005, pp. 1000-1004 (with Silvana Marasco and Joe Ibrahim).
‘Whistleblowing, virtue and accountability in an age of precarious employment’, Just Policy 37, September 2005, pp.64-70 (with Leanne White).
‘Consequentialism, complacency, and slippery slope arguments’, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 26, no. 3, May 2005, pp.227-39 (with Dean Cocking)
‘Public reporting of individual surgeon performance information: United Kingdom developments and Australian issues’, Medical Journal of Australia 181, no. 5, 6 September 2004, pp. 266-8 (with David Neil and Steve Clarke)
‘Informed consent and surgeons’ performance’, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 29, no. 1, February 2004, pp. 11-35 (with Steve Clarke).
‘On posthumous fatherhood’, Journal of Medical Ethics 30, no. 4, August 2004.
‘Democracy, embryonic stem cell research, and the Roman Catholic church’, Journal of Medical Ethics 28, no. 4, August 2002.
‘Indicators of Risk-adjusted Clinical Performance’, Journal of Law and Medicine 8, no. 3, February 2001, pp. 240-4 (with Bernadette McSherry).
‘The Ethics of Professional Detachment’, Journal of Law and Medicine 7, no. 2, November 1999 (with Dean Cocking).
‘Exhausted Carers, Neglected Patients, and Filial Duties: When and How should Health Professionals Intervene in Family Caregiving Arrangements?’ Monash Bioethics Review 18, no. 3, July 1999.
‘Varieties of Virtue Ethics’, Ratio 9, no. 2, September 1996, pp. 128-52.
‘Indirect Consequentialism, Friendship, and the Problem of Alienation’, Ethics 106, no. 1, October 1995, pp. 86-111 (with Dean Cocking).
‘Consequentialism, Moral Responsibility, and the Intention/Foresight Distinction’, Utilitas 6, no. 2, November 1994, pp. 201-16 (with Dean Cocking).
‘Medical Experimentation, Informed Consent, and Using People’, Bioethics 8, no. 4, October 1994, pp. 293-311 (with Dean Cocking).
‘Altruistic Surrogacy and Informed Consent’, Bioethics 6, no. 4, October 1992, pp. 269-287.
‘Informed Consent: Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery as a Case Study’, Modern Medicine of Australia 35, no. 9, September 1992, pp. 98-104; also published in Bioethics News 12, no. 2, January 1993, pp. 27-32 (with Charles Eccles-Smith).
‘A Critique of Kantian Arguments Against Emotions as Moral Motives’, History of Philosophy Quarterly 7, no. 4, October 1990, pp. 441-459.
Non-refereed Articles:
‘Teaching Scientists the Value of Virtue’, Australasian Science 30, no. 2, March 2009, p. 39.
‘Should surgeons declare their success rates for the operations they perform?’, The Sunday Age, 1st October 2006, p. 10.
‘The Role of Humanities Research in Promoting and Maintaining Good Health’, in The Humanities and Australia's National Research Priorities, Canberra, Australian Academy of the Humanities, 2003.
‘Human Reproductive Cloning, Self-Expression, and The Moral Significance of Reproductive Liberty’, in Ronald Francis (ed.), Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics 2003, Melbourne, Victoria University, 2003.
‘Reproductive Cloning and Arguments from Potential’, in Paul McNeill (ed.),Global Bioethics: Exploring Alternative Approaches, Proceedings of the Australasian Bioethics Association Annual Conference 2002, Adelaide, University of Adelaide, 2002.
‘The Appropriate Communication of Performance Information’, Health Care in Focus: 14th Casemix Conference, Melbourne, 2002, Commonwealth Dept. of Health and Ageing, 2002 (with Joe Ibrahim and Steve Clarke).
‘Doing Justice to the Lawyer's Role’, in Andrew Alexandra, Tony Coady, and Bruce Langtry (eds.), Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics, Melbourne, University of Melbourne Centre for Philosophy and Public Issues, 1998, pp. 77-86 (with Dean Cocking).
‘Family Carers and the Role of the Health Professional’, in Paul Komesaroff (ed.), Expanding the Horizons of Bioethics: Proceedings of the Australian Bioethics Association Fifth Annual Conference, Melbourne, Arena, 1998, pp. 139-42.
‘Sketch of a Virtue Ethics Approach to Health Care Resource Allocation’, Monash Bioethics Review 13, no. 4, October 1994, pp. 27-33.
‘Virtue Ethics, Regulative Ideals and the Doctor-Patient Relationship’, in Kathie Stove (ed.), Bioethics 1971-2001 (Proceedings of the Australian Bioethics Association Third National Conference), Adelaide, 1994, pp. 176-85 (with Dean Cocking).
‘Applying Virtue Ethics in Clinical Care’, Proceedings of the Australian Bioethics Association Second National Conference, Vol. 4, Sydney, 1992 (with Dean Cocking).
‘Aristotelian Autonomy’, in Christine Martin (ed.), Bioethics and the Wider Community (Proceedings of Australian Bioethics Association First National Conference), Melbourne, 1991, pp. 237-45.
‘Basic Ethical Principles in Aged Care’, in Lynn Gillam (ed.), Frail, Elderly - Fairly Treated? Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Aged Care(Proceedings of Monash University Centre for Human Bioethics Annual Conference), Melbourne, Centre for Human Bioethics, 1992, pp. 19-27.
Book Reviews:
Jonathan Glover, Choosing Children: Genes, Disability, and Design (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2006), Mind 117, January 2008, pp. 180-3.
Timothy Chappell (ed.), Values and Virtues: Aristotelianism in Contemporary Ethics (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2006), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 15 September 2007.
‘Consolations in a Void’ (Review of Miriam Cosic, The Right to Die? An Examination of the Euthanasia Debate, Sydney, New Holland Publ co., 2003), Australian Book Review 254, September 2003, p. 42.
‘Humane After All?’ (Review of Allen Wood, Kant's Ethical Thought; Robert B. Louden, Kant’s Impure Ethics; G. Felicitas Munzel, Kant's Conception of Moral Character; Thomas E. Hill, Respect, Pluralism, and Justice.) The Times Literary Supplement, 6 July 2001, pp. 10-11
Fred Feldman, Confrontations with the Reaper: A Philosophical Study of the Nature and Value of Death (New York, Oxford University Press, 1992); James M. Hoefler with Brian E. Kamoie, Deathright: Culture, Medicine, Politics and the Right to Die (Boulder, Westview Press, 1994); and The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, When Death is Sought: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context (New York State Health Education Services, 1994), in Journal of Medical Ethics 21, no. 5, October 1995, pp. 315-16.
Simon Blackburn, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994), in The Australian, 15 April 1995, p. 8.
Max Charlesworth, Bioethics in a Liberal Society (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993), in The Australian, 12 March 1994, p. 5.
Max Charlesworth, Life, Death, Genes and Ethics (Sydney, ABC Books, 1989), in Australasian Journal of Philosophy 69, no. 1, March 1991, pp. pp. 108-110; revised version in Bioethics 5, no. 2, April 1991, pp. 160-5.
J.O. Urmson & Jonathan Ree (eds.), The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and Philosophers (London, Unwin Hyman, 1990), in The Australian, 17 February 1990, p. 7.
Gordon Taylor, The Student's Writing Guide for the Arts and Social Sciences (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989), in The Age, 14 May 1990.
Booknotes:
Booknote on Kerry Breen, Vernon Plueckhahn, and Stephen Cordner, Ethics, Law and Medical Practice, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1997, 367pp, $39.95,Bioethics 12, no. 3, July 1998, p. 260.
Grants awarded:
1991 Australian Research Council, Research Grant (# A59030224): ‘Intention and Foresight in Consequentialist Bioethics - A Clinical Study’. Associate Investigator; in collaboration with Dr. Michael Smith, Chief Investigator.) Amount awarded: $27,100 (for one year).
1992 Australian Research Council, Research Grant (# A59131226): ‘Virtue Ethics in Medicine - An Alternative Practical Ethics in Clinical Care’. (Chief Invesigator; in collaboration with Professor Michael Smith.) Amount awarded:$50,000 ($25,000 per year, for two years).
2000 Co-recipient (as Joint Project Leader, with Lynn Gillam) of a Melbourne/Monash project grant ($50,000) to develop and create a CD-ROM, titled ‘Interactive Medical Ethics’. This CD-ROM is designed for use by undergraduate medical students at both Monash and Melbourne Universities.
2000 Monash University Strategic Innovations Fund Grant. Inter-faculty Professional Ethics Project (Project Leader, with Dr Aubrey Townsend): $65,000. General co-ordination and development of this project, which produced and delivered a modular inter-faculty subject: IDS2001 Ethics at Work: Ethical Issues in Professional Life, offered in on-campus, distance education, and flexible mode, from the summer semester 2000/2001.
2003 National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant: ‘An ethical analysis of the disclosure of surgeons’ performance data to patients within the informed consent process’. (Chief Investigator A, in collaboration with Dr Steve Clarke, Dr Joe Ibrahim, Dr Rosemary Robins, and Assoc Prof Helga Kuhse.) Amount awarded:$139,900 for 2003-2006.