Faculty/School

Faculty of Business and Law

School of Law

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Australian Centre for Health Law Research

Primary Supervisor

Professor Shih-Ning Then
Position
Professor
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Business & Law

External supervisors

  • Professor Dominique Martin, Deakin University, Adjunct Professor of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research

Overview

Transplantation of organs offers life-saving treatment to individuals living with a range of life-limiting illnesses. However, a shortage of organs available from deceased and living donors means that many people are unable to benefit from transplantation. Where organs are scarce, individuals may seek to access a transplant outside of their home country – either via the illegal black market, ‘transplant tourism’, or through legitimate means. However, the extent of international travel for organ transplantation (ITOT) is largely unknown due to limited collection of data about such activities.

This project will examine the issue of travel for organ transplantation by focusing on the role of regulation in the collection of important data. It considers the question: should regulation be used in Australia to impose reporting obligations on health care professionals and others to identify when a person is known or suspected to have travelled outside Australia for the purpose of receiving an organ transplant? It will examine the potential ethical justifications for a reporting mandate and identify countries where regulation has been used for this purpose.

This interdisciplinary project will be supervised by supervisors with expertise in health law and bioethics (Professor Shih-Ning Then and Adjunct Professor Dominique Martin) from the Australian Centre for Health Law Research. It will contribute to a broader body of work under the auspices of the ITOT Research Collaborative.

Research engagement

  • Literature review on the topic – including legal, medical and bioethics literature and grey material.
  • Regulatory mapping – identification and mapping of relevant regulations across Australia, UK, USA, Spain, South Africa and Canada.
  • Regulatory comparison – of geographic approaches to the issue of reporting travel for transplantation; and comparison with approaches to health professional reporting duties relating to, e.g., notifiable diseases, child welfare, and firearms injuries.

Research activities

The student will work collaboratively with and under the supervision of Professor Shih-Ning Then and Professor Dominique Martin. They will conduct

  • Data base and web based searches for relevant literature on the relevant topics;
  • Identification and analysis of the different regulatory mechanisms adopted by different countries/regions
  • Drafting summaries of findings

Research skills

  • Legal research and comparative analysis skills: comparing different regulatory approaches and mechanisms across different jurisdictions
  • Development of academic writing skills

Outcomes

A summary report presenting the results of the research will be published in an academic journal

Skills and experience

  • Students should have an interest in health law and bioethics.

Start date

2 November, 2026

End date

18 December, 2026

Location

QUT Gardens Point

Additional information

This  VRES project  comes within the research work of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research.  Students may have the opportunity to be more broadly involved in ACHLR activities.

Keywords

Contact

Professor Shih-Ning Then

07 31389596

Shih-Ning.Then@qut.edu.au