Thomson Reuters is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Malcolm Smith as the Health and Guardianship Section Editor for The Queensland Lawyer.

Dr Malcolm Smith is a Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology. He is a member of the Law Faculty’s Health Law Research Centre and his current research focuses on:

• the legal, regulatory and ethical issues associated with assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), particularly the regulation of embryo selection technologies and the creation of ‘saviour siblings’;
• the legal and ethical issues associated with minors’ consent to, and refusal of, medical treatment; and,
• the legal and ethical issues associated with the end-of-life, particularly the role of law in advance care planning.

Malcolm completed his law degree at the University of Greenwich (UK) in 2003. Following this, he went on to complete an LLM in Health Law at Nottingham Trent University (UK). In 2006, Malcolm was awarded an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship and a Research Capacity Building Award to complete his PhD at the QUT’s Law and Justice Research Centre. Malcolm’s doctoral thesis examines the regulation of ARTs in Australia and the UK, and considers whether families wishing to utilise in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and pre-implantation tissue-typing for the creation of ‘saviour siblings’, should be free to do so. Malcolm is currently writing a book on the issue of ‘saviour siblings’, which is due to be published in 2014 with Ashgate Publishers (UK).

Alongside completion of his doctoral research, Malcolm was also employed as a Lecturer in Health Law within the School of Medicine at Griffith University. Prior to, and after completing his PhD, Malcolm obtained over three years experience working for the National Health Service (NHS) in London, where he was responsible for managing clinical negligence, employers’ liability, and public liability claims. During his employment at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Malcolm was a member of the Trust’s Clinical Ethics Committee and was also a Tutor in Medical Ethics at the Department of Medicine, Imperial College London. Malcolm was also employed as a Teaching Associate at Queen Mary, University of London, where he lectured on the LLM course in Medical Jurisprudence. Malcolm is also a volunteer writer for BioNews.

We are delighted to have Dr Smith join the Editorial Team for the Journal, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge in the area of health law and practice, which we are sure subscribers will benefit from.