Historian Dr Sarah Ferber is redefining contemporary bioethics to include an historical dimension. And she's planning a series of articles and a book, funded by a coveted UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award of $65,000.
The book will have something for everyone, with topics such as medicine and social morality, human experimentation, women and reproductive medicine, genetic research and euthanasia.
Dr Ferber’s project, one of the first of its kind, aims to reshape scholarly enquiry, professional medical training and public debate on bioethics. It will also, she hopes, boost public debate by encouraging people to bring nuanced views to emotive issues.
“History’s not just a body of dead facts,” Dr Ferber said. “Reflection and analysis increase understanding, help explain change, and inform the way we think about the world we’re making.
“I want to create a new idea of what medical history and bioethics are, and provide a major intervention in three emerging disciplines: the social history of medicine; the medical humanities; and bioethics.”
Dr Ferber says the historical context promotes understanding at the personal level, where medical and social values interact.
“It helps you make comparisons and expand your choices,” she said. “For example, new gene technologies can be compared to earlier eugenics, but the comparison isn’t always totally valid.”
Dr Ferber said that universities with reputations for scientific innovation traditionally balanced that with reflection on where such innovation would lead.
“It’s not a luxury to think about where medicine and science are going,” she said. “It’s a necessity, and my project is one of several University of Queensland initiatives linking medical/scientific enquiry with the humanities and social sciences.”
Dr Ferber, a lecturer in the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, is no stranger to bioethics. In 1996 she launched Australia’s first known bioethics history course at the University of Queensland. Now, she estimates, students outside the pure arts stream account for 20 percent of enrolments for that course, and postgraduate interest is growing.
Next year she'll be off overseas, to conduct research in two of the world’s major bioethics centres in the USA, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Wellcome Institute Library in London, known for its rare historical materials and large collections on the social history of medicine.
She will also be making good use of the University of Queensland’s new 19th century medical periodicals microfilm collection, bought with a University of Queensland Research Infrastructure Block grant of $133,000 Dr Ferber won in 2002.
Media: Videos and still photos are available at www.uq.edu.au/news/researchweek or for further information, contact Dr Ferber (telephone 07 3365 6668, email s.ferber@uq.edu.au) or Moya Pennell at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2846, email m.pennell@uq.edu.au).
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