Dr Rebekah McWhirter is a research fellow with the Centre for Law and Genetics, Faculty of Law, with an adjunct appointment at the Menzies Institute of Medical Research, University of Tasmania. Her research interests include ethical and legal issues in genetic research, indigenous genetics, empirical research methods in ethical and legal research, and methods for identifying genetic risk factors for disease in isolated populations. She is currently working on an ARC Discovery Grant project, “Genomic Data Sharing: Issues in Law, Research Ethics and Society”.

Biography

Rebekah completed her PhD in medical history at the University of Tasmania before joining Menzies as a project officer in the cancer genetics group, working on familial studies of prostate cancer and haematological malignancies in Tasmania. She then undertook a MSc in Public Health Research at the University of Edinburgh, focusing on an investigation of genetic risk factors for multiple sclerosis in the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

Upon her return to Australia, she joined a research team at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, and managed a genetic and anthropological study of a vulvar cancer cluster among young Aboriginal women resident in the East Arnhem district of the Northern Territory.

In 2012, she returned to Menzies in Hobart, where she continues her work on vulvar cancer genetics and, in collaboration with members of the Centre of Law and Genetics in the Faculty of Law, also undertakes research into the ethical and legal issues in genetic research.

In 2018, she joined the Centre for Law and Genetics fulltime, where she works applies empirical research methods to ethical and legal issues in genomics and healthcare.

Career summary

Qualifications

• BA (1st Class Hons), University of Tasmania, Australia, 2003. Doctoring Status: the BMA in Tasmania 1911-1930
• PhD, University of Tasmania, Australia, 2008. 'Lymph or Liberty': Responses to Smallpox Vaccination in the Eastern Australian Colonies
• MSc (Public Health Research), University of Edinburgh, UK. 2010. Genetic Risk Factors for Multiple Sclerosis in the Northern Isles of Scotland

Memberships

Professional practice

• Member of the Health and Medical Human Research Ethics Committee (Tasmania Network) (2012-present)
• Co-leader of the Empirical Ethics stream of the Australasian Association for Bioethics and Health Law (2017-present)
• Member of the Ethics and Social Issues Committee of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (2015-2016)
• Professional memberships: International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease, Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law, European Society of Human Genetics, and Human Genome Organisation (HUGO)

Teaching

Research ethics, Cancer genetics, Indigenous health, Health law

Teaching expertise

Rebekah has coordinated CNA001 Patients’ Rights, was co-ordinator of CAD206 Ethical and Legal Aspects of Dementia Care, lectures into XBR120 Complementary Medicines in Contemporary Society, and has lectured on research ethics in the following units: Human Genetics, Health Law, and Fundamentals of Clinical Science 2.

Research Appointments

• Member of the Ethics and Social Issues Committee of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (2015-2016)
• Member of the Health and Medical Human Research Ethics Committee (Tasmania Network) (2012-present)
• Co-leader of the Empirical Ethics stream of the Australasian Association for Bioethics and Health Law (2017-present)