Dr Sascha Callaghan
Dr Sascha Callaghan
Bioetech Law & Ethics
 
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Sascha Callaghan

Health law & bioethics

Dr Sascha Callaghan is an expert in health law and bioethics and a commentator on emerging and complex issues in healthcare ethics and biotech regulation.

Her research and writing covers a variety of issues in law and the body, with a particular focus on human rights in health care, personhood and choice.

After eight years as a corporate lawyer, Sascha completed a PhD in human rights in mental health at the University of Sydney, joining the Faculty of Law in 2015. In 2022 she joined the Law Health Justice Centre at the University of Technogy, Sydney where she teaches Health Law and Biotech Ethics in the Law program. She has extensive experience in policy advising, and has written numerous academic and general publications on issues ranging from public health ethics, mental health, use and regulation of reproductive technologies, property in the body, and dying.

Sascha appears regularly on radio, television and public events discussing current issues in health, technology and law, and has produced several large scale commissioned reports on law and policy for Australian governments and NGOs.


 

Expertise

Healthcare & medicine - policy, ethics and regulation

Brain and mind sciences - policy, ethics and regulation

Tech innovation and AI – policy, ethics and regulation

Data privacy

Education – strategy and implementation

Services

Ethics consultancy

Policy and regulatory advisory

Large scale research and reporting

Design and implementation of ethical frameworks

 
 

Writing

Academic writing

My work is published in leading Australian and international journals such as the NSW Law Journal, and the Medical Journal of Australia, the International Journal of Law and Medicine and the International Journal of Law and Mental Health, and is cited on average, on over 50 occasions per year. A full list of academic writing including edited book chapters and peer reviewed journal articles is available on my research page at the University of Sydney.

Opinion / Editorial

Speaking

Data privacy

Privacy & Consent: Winning the trust of citizens and consumers, Broadcast panel event hosted by The Mandarin and Facebook.  Panelists: Sascha Callaghan, University of Sydney, Yvonne Cunnane, Associate General Counsel on Data Protection, Facebook; and Miguel Carrasco, Managing Director at BCG.

Sydney Ideas, Do we need a right to psychological privacy? , 21 August 2018.  Panellists: Mia Garlick, Facebook; Sophie Farthing, Australian Human Rights Commission; and Peter Leonard, Data Synergies. Sydney Ideas is the University of Sydney’s marquee public engagement series hosted and broadcast from the University of Sydney.


Raising the Bar, Who Owns You?  The problem of ownership of human bodies and data Wednesday 17 October, 2018. Raising the Bar is one the University of Sydney’s most popular public engagement events, hosted in bars across Sydney each October.

Drugs,
alcohol &
medical
marijuana

Sydney Ideas, Is there anything wrong with medicinal cannabis?, University of Sydney, 21 November 2018.  Panellists: Dr Mark Ware, Chief Medical Officer, Canopy Growth Corporation; Dr Teresa Nicoletti – Partner, Mills Oakley; Adjunct Professor John Skerritt – Deputy Secretary for Health Products Regulation, Department of Health; Lucy Haslam – Executive Director and Co-Founder, United in Compassion.

The Ethics of Getting High, 3 August, 2016.  Vice World Event with The Ethics Centre, Sydney.

Medical Cannabis in NSW, NSW Health 12th NSW Addiction Medicine Annual Meeting, Tuesday 18th November 2014.

702 ABC Interview with Linda Motram, 8.55am, Tuesday 11 August 2015, (commenting on Jacquie Lambie’s criticism of lack of drug treatment services).

Birth & reproduction

Consent to normal birth, RANZCOG Regional Scientific Meeting 10 June 2018.  “Motivate, Innovate and Integrate: the future of Obstetrics and Gynaecology”. 

Sex selection - the regulatory framework and its ethical implications.  Sex Selection: Changes in Australian Policy, Macquarie University, 9 June 2017.

Birth trauma and intra partum consent – legal dimensions.   Maternal Trauma Workshop, Nepean Clinical School, 20 August 2017

Panellist, “Is it Ever too Late to Have an Abortion” Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 20 April 2015. 

NeuroLaw

Neuroscience Developments and the Law, National Judicial College of Australia, Hobart, Tasmania, 8 October 2017.

Mental Health

Australia’s Evolving Revolution in Mental Health Law.  Melbourne Social Equity Institute’s conference on Disability, Human Rights and Social Equity, Melbourne, 4-5 February, 2016.

International Human Rights in Mental Health Law: Challenges for Practice South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD), Medical Education Program, 16 November 2015.

Capacity and the newly amended NSW Mental Health Act (2007); Panel member, Capacity and Personal Recovery  ‘The Dignity of Risk’, Mental Health Recovery Forum, NSW Health, Mental Health & Wellbeing Consumer Advisory Group, Wednesday 30 September, 2015.

The Human Rights Challenging in Treatment for Mental Illness, North Shore Local Health District Recovery Forum Embracing Risk Within Recovery Oriented Practice, NSW Health Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Office (MHDAO), Monday 9th September 2013.

Philosophy, ethics & fun

Emotions in Legal Practices: Historical and Modern Attitudes Compared, 27-28 September 2016, The University of Sydney.

Panellist, Vivid Ideas “Killer Clothes: How to Stand Up to Fast Fashion”, Museum of Contemporary Art, 4 June, 2016.

“How punitive should public health get: smokers don’t deserve health care”. Annual Symposium on Advances in Public Health and Health Services Research, University of New South Wales, 21 September 2012.

Media

Interviews

SBS News It could happen to anyone - why thousands of women will march in Sydney this weekend, 5 June 2019.

ABC 702 Breakfast, Tuesday 11 August 2015, (commenting on Jacquie Lambie’s criticism of lack of drug treatment services).

Interview, Pregnant Jehovah's Witness' decision to refuse treatment 'harrowing' for hospital staff after mother and baby die, Sydney Morning Herald , April 7 2015. (Related radio interviews followed up with ABC 702 Drive;  Radio 2UE Drive; 6PR Perth).

Neuroscience database feature: Lynne Malcolm and Olivia Willis (2016), Can neurolaw change the criminal justice system? All in the Mind, ABC Radio National, Friday 15 April, 3.28PM.

ABC 702, Interview with James Valentine, Tuesday 1 December 2015 (responding to the question: What is Neurolaw?

Michaela Whitbourn (2015), “Criminal minds: how neuroscience is changing the law”, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 December 2015.

Amy Corderoy (2012).  New report cuts review wait time for mentally ill , Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 15 March.

Cavazzini, Mic (2015), Doctors stand on asylum kids potent and legal, The Medical Republic, 21 October2015

Interview, Plans for First Human Head Transplant Announced, The Project, Channel 10. Tuesday, 14 April 2015.

Panels

Panellist, “Is it Ever too Late to Have an Abortion” Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 20 April 2015. 

Profiles

Research & advisory

Advisory

Queensland Mental Health Commission, (2019).  Human rights protection frameworks for people being treated involuntarily for a mental illness, Gianfranco Giuntoli,  Amanda Wheeler, Sascha Callaghan, Rosemary Kayess, Christopher Ryan, Donna McAulifffe, Andrew Blythe, Karen Fisher, Sandra Gendera. 

NSW Health Mental Health and Advance Care Planning Working Group,Capacity Australia consultation on  Advance Care Planning and End of Life Decisions for People with Mental Illness - Information Guide for Consumers; and Advance Care Planning and End of Life Decisions for People with a Mental Illness - A resource for health professionals in NSW (2016).

Department of Family and Community Services,  Ageing, Disability & Home Care, Capacity Australia consultation on  Decision Making and Consent Policy and Decision Making and Consent Guidelines (2016);

Mental Health Coordinating Council, consultation on The Mental Health Rights Manual: A Consumer Guide to the Legal and Human Rights of People with Mental Illness in NSW (3rd Edition) 2011

The Minister for Mental Health, The Hon Kevin Humphries, and the NSW Upper House on due process for involuntary hospital admissions (in collaboration with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, 2011).  Hansard for NSW Parliament indicates that my research was relied on in support of changes to funding of the Mental Health Review Tribunal.

Consultation
& research

Queensland Mental Health Commission, (2019).  Human rights protection frameworks for people being treated involuntarily for a mental illness, Gianfranco Giuntoli,  Amanda Wheeler, Sascha Callaghan, Rosemary Kayess, Christopher Ryan, Donna McAulifffe, Andrew Blythe, Karen Fisher, Sandra Gendera. 

NSW Health Mental Health and Advance Care Planning Working Group,Capacity Australia consultation on  Advance Care Planning and End of Life Decisions for People with Mental Illness - Information Guide for Consumers; and Advance Care Planning and End of Life Decisions for People with a Mental Illness - A resource for health professionals in NSW (2016).

Department of Family and Community Services,  Ageing, Disability & Home Care, Capacity Australia consultation on  Decision Making and Consent Policy and Decision Making and Consent Guidelines (2016);

Mental Health Coordinating Council, consultation on The Mental Health Rights Manual: A Consumer Guide to the Legal and Human Rights of People with Mental Illness in NSW (3rd Edition) 2011

The Minister for Mental Health, The Hon Kevin Humphries, and the NSW Upper House on due process for involuntary hospital admissions (in collaboration with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, 2011).  Hansard for NSW Parliament indicates that my research was relied on in support of changes to funding of the Mental Health Review Tribunal.