Staff Profiles

Professor Loane Skene

Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Research interests: Medical Law, Ethics, Reproductive Technology, Genetics, Euthanasia

Loane Skene came to the University of Melbourne in 1992 after working as a solicitor in Melbourne and England; and a policy adviser in Canada and Melbourne (10 years with the Victorian Law Reform Commission). She specialises in Health and Medical Law and is a Professor of Law in the Faculty of Law and an Adjunct Professor of Law in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. She is the author of two books: Law and Medical Practice: Rights, Duties, Claims and Defences, (1st ed, Butterworths, 1998; 2nd ed, Lexis-Nexis, 2004); and You, Your Doctor and the Law (OUP, 1990). She has also published numerous chapters in book and articles in Australian and overseas legal, medical and scientific journals.

Loane has served on many federal and state policy committees, especially in relation to the legal regulation of genetic testing. Her research interests also include the legal regulation of genetic testing, assisted reproductive technology and euthanasia. She is Deputy Director of the Centre for Law and Genetics at the University of Tasmania and the University of Melbourne; Program Director, Medical Ethics, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), Charles Sturt University and The University of Melbourne, and Board member, Australian and New Zealand Institute of Health, Law and Ethics (ANZIHLE), formerly the Australian Institute of Health ,Law and Ethics (AIHLE).