Dr Malcolm Smith

Biography

Malcolm Smith joined the QUT Law School in 2011 and has worked as a full-time academic in the School from 2011 until April 2018. Malcolm has since joined Corrs Chambers Westgarth Lawyers as a Senior Adviser, working with the Health Litigation Team. Alongside his role at Corrs, Malcolm maintains a part-time role at the QUT Law School, teaching health law.

During his full-time academic appointment, Malcolm was the Higher Degree Research Coordinator, and co-leader of the Children's Health and Beginning of Life Program, which forms part of QUT's Australian Centre for Health Law Research. Malcolm has published widely in the field of health law. His research focuses on:

• the legal, regulatory and ethical issues associated with assisted reproductive technology (ART), 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, particularly the law surrounding special medical procedures; and,
• the legal and ethical issues associated with consent more generally, particularly information disclosure and negligence liability.

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 Law School. Malcolm’s doctoral thesis examined the regulation of assisted reproductive technologies in Australia and the UK and considered 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 has published a scholarly monograph on this topic, entitled, Saviour Siblings and the Regulation of Assisted Reproductive Technology: Harm, Ethics and Law, which was published by Ashgate (now Routledge) in December 2015.

Alongside his PhD candidature, Malcolm was also employed as a Lecturer in Health Law at Griffith University's School of Medicine. Prior to, and after completing his PhD, Malcolm spent more than three years 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. He was also previously a member of the Human Research Ethics Committee for Metro South, Brisbane (Queensland Health) and the Health and Guardianship Law Section Editor for the journal, The Queensland Lawyer.