[SydPhil] Sydney Health Ethics Conversation - Catherine Mills - 18 September 2025

[Kathryn MacKay]

Catherine Mills | 18 September
Sydney Health Ethics Conversation Series  
Procreative responsibility in the context of post-genomics

Hi everyone, 

Please join us for the next SHE Conversation series with Professor Catherine Mills. 
Speaker 
Professor Catherine Mills
Professor of Bioethics at Monash University
Catherine Mills <https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/DLvkCOMKzVTvWr9Jmh9f7tG5Lk1?domain=t.e2ma.net> is a Professor of Bioethics at Monash University, Australia. Her research addresses ethical, social and regulatory issues that arise around biomedical and technology innovation in human reproduction. She works collaboratively with industry partners such as Illumina and Monash IVF, as well as community and professional stakeholders to develop solutions to improve patient and consumer experiences. Her current projects include ethical and social research on prenatal testing, epigenetics, sperm and egg donation and mitochondrial donation, for which she has received funding from major national and international funders. She leads the engagement and implementation stream of mitoHOPE, the clinical trial of mitochondrial donation in Australia.
Abstract
Procreative responsibility in the context of post-genomics

This paper reports findings from an ARC funded project on the ethical and social implications of epigenetics. The project investigates the uses of epigenetic science in scientific, policy and public understandings of pregnancy and parenting to illuminate the roles that scientific evidence plays in the moralisation of procreation. The translation of epigenetics into bioethics, law and policy may have significant implications. It may make pregnancy more intensely individualised and moralised: it could be used to impose additional responsibilities on prospective parents and pregnant people. Conversely, it may foster recognition of biological plasticity, including a sense of pregnancy as a social phenomenon, responsibility for which is distributed and shared. In this paper, I discuss some of the ways we have approached these issues in our project. 
When
18th September 2025
12:00–1:00 PM
Where
A27, Dean’s Boardroom/Conference Room
Level 2 (Main Entrance from Fisher Road, immediate left after you enter).
Joining online? Register here: Zoom registration link  <https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/_FvLCP7LAXf3pArOEfJhytx73qK?domain=t.e2ma.net>
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Supriya Subramani: supriya.subramani at sydney.edu.au <mailto:supriya.subramani at sydney.edu.au>​.
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