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Austen Garwood-Gowers

Dr Austen Garwood-Gowers

Associate Professor

Nottingham Law School

Staff Group(s)
Nottingham Law School staff

Role

Dr Austen Garwood-Gowers is an Associate Professor in Health Law and Ethics. He has around 50 publications in this field, supervises a number of PhD students and carries out undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in various niches of it. He leads the Health Law and Ethics Research Group within Nottingham Law School, is a member of the steering group of the cross university Health and Well-being research theme, chairs the School Research Ethics Committee and sits on its Research and Innovation Committee as well as the College Research Ethics Committee.

Career overview

Dr Garwood-Gowers began his academic career in 1990 working part-time at Westminster University before joining De Montfort University School of Law in 1991 on a research focused contract. He lectured at De Montfort, Lincoln and Middlesex Universities before starting at Nottingham Trent University in 2001.

Research areas

Brief research history and interests

Dr Garwood-Gowers joined De Montfort University in 1991 principally to work with Professors David Price and Ronnie Mackay and collaborating partners at Leicester and Lancaster Universities on a multidisciplinary project centred on the legal and ethical aspects of living donor organ transplantation. The project expanded into a multi-centre European study called EUROTOLD which ran from 1991-1997 (ref: BMH1-CT92-1841) after having successfully contracted with the European Commission for considerable funding. Dr Garwood-Gowers was a key member of the management team for the project. In 1998 he completed his Phd on living donor organ transplantation under the supervision of Professors Price and Mackay and a year after that published his first monograph entitled Living Donor Organ Transplantation: Key Legal and Ethical Issues (Ashgate).

Over the subsequent decades his research and publication work has expanded to transplant law and ethics more broadly and to other niches of medical law and ethics such as consent, the protection of minors and incapable adults, assisted reproduction, euthanasia, human tissue research and medical research more generally. Much of his work is built on the critical consideration and application of philosophical theory and general and health specific human rights frameworks and instruments. Exemplifying the former he was a member of the management team of a recent AHRC funded seminar series examining the relationship of faith and belief with health law (The David Price Memorial Series) and presented a paper as part of this on A theistic basis for dignity and how it can function as the basis for addressing core issues in healthcare law. Exemplifying the latter, he edited with John Tingle and Tom Lewis a collection entitled Healthcare Law: The Impact of the Human Rights Act (Cavendish, 2001) and more recently led the development of chapters examining the European human rights dimensions of transplantation and informed consent for Andre den Exter's cutting edge European Health Law collection (Maklu, 2017). However. perhaps his most significant work to date in these respects and more generally is his recent monograph Medical Use of the Human Being (Routledge, 2019). Prior to its publication, medical practices that intrude on the interests of those subject to them partly or wholly to fulfill wider ends had been studied within the silos of their field origins - for example, in the contexts of transplantation, human tissue research and so on. Coining the phrase medical use of human beings to describe such practices, Dr Garwood-Gowers critically examined them as a unified whole in their own right. As well as creatively disrupting and reshaping the internal field-category boundaries of medical law and ethics the monograph presents a powerful case that such practices should be constrained by respect for human worth and as well as clearly outlining what this entails mounts an excoriating critique of the shortfalls of current discourse, law and practice.

Research supervision expertise

Dr Garwood-Gowers has 3 PhD completions as Director of Studies and is currently Director of Studies for 6 projects and Second Supervisor for one.  His current supervisions span an eclectic range of topics within the field of health law and ethics.

External activity

Ad Hoc assessment of grant applications for Flanders Research and the Welcome Trust

Review work for leading peer refereed journals in the field (such as Medical Law Review, Liverpool Law Review and Medical Law International).

External examination of higher degrees and programme validation and review.

Membership of the European Association of Health Law, the World Association of Medical Law and steering group member of the Midlands Healthcare Law and Ethics Consortium.

Extensive external contacts across Europe and beyond with health law and ethics academics and others with expert interest in the field.

Sponsors and collaborators

Key past sponsors have included the European Commission, AHRC and SCIE.

Publications

Monographs

  1. Medical use of human beings, Routledge, 2019.
  2. Living Donor Organ Transplantation: Key Legal and Ethical Issues, Ashgate, 1999.

Edited collections

  1. Contemporary Issues in Healthcare Law and Ethics, Reed Elsevier, 2005, eds. Garwood-Gowers, A, Wheat, K, Tingle, J.
  2. Healthcare Law: The impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, Cavendish, 2001 eds. Garwood-Gowers, A, Tingle, J and Lewis, T.

Articles in Refereed Journals

  1. Time to Address the Problem of Post-Mortem Transplantation Occurring without Proper Pre-mortem consent (2013) EJHL 20, 383-408
  2. International Means for Protecting Human Beings as Ends in Medicine, Journal on Law and Medicine, 2011, 1, 133-146
  3. Vindicating the right to bodily security of the incapable in research, Journal of Mental Health Law, 2006, May, 7-25
  4. Contemporary issues in the regulation of artificial reproduction and embryology in the UK, Law and the Human Genome Review 2004, 21, 67-101.
  5. Improving Protection Against Indirect Interference With the Use and Enjoyment of Home: Challenging the Legacy of Hunter v Canary Wharf Using the European Convention on Human Rights and Human Rights Act 1998, Nottingham Law Journal, 2002, 11(1), 1-19.
  6. (with Sandlha Sumann), ‘Transplanting Animal Organs into Humans: Should it Be Legal?  Health Care Risk Report, February 2001.
  7. Incompetent Minors: Rights v Best Interests, Health Care Risk Report, June 2000.
  8. David Price and Austen Garwood-Gowers, ‘The Texture and Content of Living Donor Transplant Laws and Policies, Transplantation Proceedings,’ 1996, 28(1), 378-379.
  9. David Price and Austen Garwood-Gowers, ‘Transplantation From Minors:  Are Children Other People's Medicine? Contemporary Issues in law, 1995, 1(1), 1-27.

Chapters in Edited Books

  1. (with A Pereira),  Human to Human Organ and Tissue Transplantation in A den Exter (ed.),  European Health Law (Maklu, 2017)
  2. Respect as a Precondition for the Use of Tissue in Research, in Human Tissue Research: A Discussion of the Ethical and Legal Challenges from a European Perspective, OUP, 2011, 95-116, eds. Lenk, C, Hoppe, N, Beier, K and Wiesemann, C.
  3. Respect for the Individual: A Human Right in Post-Mortem Use of the Human Body for Transplantation(with Olsena, S), in Organ Transplantation: Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Aspects, Vol. II Pabst, 2011, 146-154, eds. W. Weimar, M. A. Bos, J. J. Busschbach.
  4. The right to bodily security vis-à-vis the needs of others, in Autonomy and Human Rights in Healthcare, Kluwer Academic Publishers (eds. Diaz-Pintos, G and Weisstub, D, 2008).
  5. The Limits to Medical Intervention that harms the therapeutic interests of incompetents, in Contemporary Issues in Healthcare Law and Ethics, Reed Elsevier, 2005 eds. Garwood-Gowers, A, Wheat, K, Tingle, J.
  6. With Kay Wheat, Aspectos basicos de la capacidad y la responsabilidad de menores en el derecho civil y criminal ingles 171-206 (Key aspects of capacity and responsibility of juveniles under English civil and criminal law) in Los Menores Ante El Derecho: Responsibilidad, capacidad y autonomia de los menores de edad. Estudio de Derecho Comparado, Universidad Complutense Madrid, 2005 eds I.Ruiz-Gallardon and A.G de Pablos.
  7. With John Tingle, The Human Rights Act: A Potent Tool For Changing Healthcare Practice with Tingle, J in Healthcare Law: The Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, Cavendish, 2001, eds. Garwood-Gowers, A, Tingle, J and Lewis, T.
  8. Time for Competent Minors to Have The Same Legal Right to Self-determination As Competent Adults with Regard to Medical Intervention, in Healthcare Law: The Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, Cavendish, 2001 eds. Garwood-Gowers, A, Tingle, J and Lewis, T.
  9. Removal and Use of Body Materials for Transplantation and Research Purposes:  The Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, in Healthcare Law: The Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, Cavendish, 2001 eds. Garwood-Gowers, A, Tingle, J and Lewis, T.
  10. To Pay or Not to Pay That is the Question: The Economic Rights of the Living Donor.  In D.Price and H.Akveld (eds.) Living Organ Donation in the Nineties: European Medico-Legal Perspectives, EUROTOLD, 1996: 166-173).

Debate presentation

(By sponsored invitation) Against the motion that donors should be paid by the state, De Montfort University, 2011.

Book Reviews

  1. Review of ‘Organ Shortage: Ethics, Law and Pragmatism,’ (eds Farrell, A, Price, D and Quigley, M), Cambridge University Press, 2011 (Med Law Rev (2014) 22 (1): 143-150)
  2. Review of ‘Organ and Tissue Transplantation (ed D.Price, Ashgate – The International Library of Medicine Ethics and Law, 2006), Medical Law Review.
  3. Review of ‘Organ and Tissue Transplantation in the European Union: Management of  Health Difficulties and Health Risks Linked to Donors (ed. Dr Yvon Englert, Martinus Nijhoff, 1995), IDHL, 1996, 47(1), 130-132.

Case Note

Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis: A Case for Law Reform, Nottingham Law Journal, 2003, 12(2), 76-88.

Conference Papers

  1. A theistic basis for dignity and how it can function as the basis for addressing core issues in healthcare law, David Price Memorial Seminar Series, Nottingham Trent University April 29-30, 2013
  2. (By sponsored invitation) Practices used pre and post mortem to clinically optimise cadaveric organ donation: A theistic case for careful constraint, David Price Memorial Seminar Series De Montfort University Law School 16th Dec 2013.
  3. (with Moreton, J), Rethinking the Role of Consent in Relation to Post Mortem Use of the Body for Organ Transplantation, ESOT ELPAT Conference, Rotterdam World Trade Centre, April 20-23, 2013.
  4. (By sponsored invitation) Dignity as a basis of the right to health, Symposium on New Dimensions of Health Rights, Spaces and their Relationships, University of Florence, November 16, 2012
  5. An Introduction to Dignity, Dignity in Donation, Nottingham Trent University, April 27, 2012.
  6. Why prefer dignity over competing approaches to ethics? Dignity in Donation, Nottingham Trent University, April 27, 2012.
  7. (with Cadinouche, M, Dignity as a legal norm, Dignity in Donation, Nottingham Trent University, April 27, 2012.
  8. By invitation sponsored by the Ecuador Government), The Intersection of Ethics, Law and Health, Ethics Conference, Guayaquil, Ecuador, March 2011.
  9. Restraint in Medical Use of the Human Body: Evaluating International Means for Protecting Individuals as Ends, World Association of Medical Law (WAML) Congress, Zagreb August 8-12, 2010
  10. With Olsena, S, Respect for the individual as a Human Right in Relation to Post Mortem Use of the Human Body for Transplantation, European Society of Transplantation (ESOT) Conference on the Ethical, Legal and Psychological Aspects of Transplantation, Rotterdam World Trade Centre, April 17-20, 2010.
  11. (By sponsored invitation) Avoiding the Commodification of Human Beings in Brain Banking, Edinburgh University (AHRC funded) Gengage deliberation event, Edinburgh International Science Festival, 16 April 2010 (public event to encourage broader engagement in genetics issues).
  12. (By invitation) Respecting the Incapable as Ends in Medicine, 31st IALMH Congress, New York, June 29-July 4, 2009.
  13. (By sponsored invitation) Respect as a Precondition for Tissue Use, First International Conference of the Tiss.EU Project, University of Goettingen, 2008
  14. (By invitation) Ethical and legal problems with creating, testing, selecting and engineering embryos to satisfy personal preferences, Symposium on Designer Babies, Middlesex University, February 2006
  15. (By invitation) The Impact of the Human Rights Act on Healthcare, Applet Conference, University of Nottingham, June 2006.
  16. Use of Incompetents in Non-therapeutic Interventions, SLSA, 2004
  17. (By invitation), Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis, Genomics Conference, Nottingham University, 2 Sept 2003.
  18. (By invitation) Why Active Euthanasia is Intrinsically Wrong, Symposium on Decision Making at the End of Life: Legal and Ethical issues, Middlesex University, 4 Dec 2003.
  19. Using Incompetent Minors for the Benefit of Others, Healthcare Law and Our Children, NTU, 10 May 2001.
  20. Time for Competent Minors to Have a Legal Right to Self-Determination With Regard to Medical Intervention? Human Rights Act 1998 and Healthcare Conference, NTU, 10 May 2000.
  21. To Pay or Not to Pay That is the Question:  The Economic Rights of the Living Donor, Rotterdam Symposium on the Legal and Ethical Aspects of Living Donor Organ Transplantation in Europe, EUROTOLD, 1995

Conference Poster Presentations

  1. EUROTOLD statistical database (Rotterdam Symposium, Nov 1995).
  2. Legal Aspects of Living Donation in Europe, CITIC Conference On Organ Shortage: The Solutions, Lyon, June 1994.

Official Report

Two chapters in the EUROTOLD final report for the European Commission; EUROTOLD Project Management Group, Questioning Attitudes to Living Donor Transplantation, ISBN 0 9531397.

Press expertise

Dr Garwood-Gowers can offer comment on euthanasia; medical law and ethics; medical research law and ethics; and organ transplants law and ethics.