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Dr Isabel Karpin

Profile

Degrees

BA/LLB Syd; LLM Harv; JSD Col.

Courses Taught: Undergraduate

  • Constitutional Law
  • Law Communications, Culture and Global Economies
  • Law Norms and Legitimacy

Courses Taught: Postgraduate

  • Law and Popular Culture
  • Legal Issues in Health Care and Technology
  • Reproduction and the Law
  • Government Regulation Health Policy and Ethics

Areas of Interest

  • Feminist Legal Theory
  • Law and Cultural Studies
  • Genetics and the Law
  • Health Law
  • Regulating Reproduction including Assisted Reproductive Technology

Brief Biographical Detail

Dr Isabel Karpin is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney. Prior to joining the Faculty in 1994 she worked for a period for the law firm Blake Dawson Waldron Solicitors, and then took up a position as legal officer at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. In 1991 she completed the Masters of Law program at Harvard University and then moved to New York to undertake a JSD at Columbia University.

Her doctoral work entitled 'Embodying Justice: Legal Responses to the Transgressive Body', examined the regulation of marginalised bodies, with a particular focus on the pregnant body She specialises in feminist legal theory, health law, genetics and the law, law and culture, and constitutional law. Her distinctive contribution to legal research and scholarship is in the area of law that can broadly be described as regulating bodies. This includes laws governing reproductive technologies, biotechnology as well as the legal responses to developments in genetic technologies and the challenges these pose to legal understandings of normality, disability, individuality, and family.
She is currently involved in several major research projects in the areas of reproductive technology, disability and emergent genetic technologies.

Publications

Current Research Projects | Books, monographs and edited works | Book Chapters | Journal articles | Other Publications | Book reviews | Conference, Lectures and Address since 2000 Presentations

Current Research Projects

Australian Research Council

  • B Bennett, W Rogers and I Karpin “Gender Inequities in Health Research: Towards a New Regulatory Framework” ARC Discovery Grant (DP0666279)(2006-2008).

Canadian High Commission

  • I Karpin “A Comparative Analysis of Canadian and Australian Legislative Responses to Reproductive Genetics, Women’s Rights and disability. Canadian Studies Program Faculty Research Program 2005-2007

University

  • I Karpin and B Bennett “The Regulation of PGD in Australia and New Zealand: Assessing the Attitudes of Key Stakeholders”, Bridging Grant, 2008
  • I Karpin and B Bennett “Regulating Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis: A Case Study for Regulating Reproductive Technology,” Bridging Grant, 2007
  • I Karpin and B Bennett “Regulating Reproductive Decision-Making In Australia and the Impact of Genetic Technologies, Bridging Grant, 2006

Books, monographs and edited works

  • Karpin, I “Better than Normal: Choosing to Self Construct” York Institute for Health Research, Monograph Series, No. 2 (1) forthcoming, 2008
  • Karpin, I “ The Uncanny Embryos: Revisited After the Passing of the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and The Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Act (2006) York Institute for Health Research Monograph Series, No. 2(2) forthcoming, 2008
  • Bennett, B, Carney, T & Karpin, I (eds) The Brave New World of Health Federation Press, forthcoming, 2008
  • Nikser, J, Mykitiuk, R, Karpin, I, Bayliss F, & Mcleod, C The Healthy Embryo forthcoming, 2008
  • Bennet, B Rogers, W, Karpin, I and Ballantyne A (eds) Special Issue of the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethic: Research Ethics: Women Sex and Gender in Biomendical Research Issue 2, 2008 (Oct/Nov)
  • Fineman, M and Karpin, I (eds), Mothers in Law, Columbia University Press, New York, 1995

Book Chapters

  • Karpin, I “Constructing the Body Inside and Out: Genetic and Somatic Modification” in Bennett, B, Carney, T, and Karpin, I (eds) The Brave New World of Health, Federation Press, Sydney, forthcoming, 2008
  • Karpin, I “Taking Care of the Health of the Preconceived Embryo” in Nisker, J, Mykitiuk R, Bayliss F, Karpin, I, and McLeod C (eds) The Healthy Embryo, forthcoming 2008
  • Bennett, B, Karpin, I, Ballantyne, A and Rogers W “Gender Inequities in Health Research: An Australian Perspective” in Michael Freeman (ed) Law and Bioethics Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2008
  • Karpin, I and Mykitiuk, R “Regulating inheritable genetic modification or policing the fertile scientific imagination a feminist response” in John EJ Rasko, Gabrielle O’Sullivan and Rachel Ankeny (ed.s) The Ethics of Inheritable Genetic Modification: A Dividing Line Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2006)
  • Karpin, I “Genetics and the Legal Conception of Self” in Roxanne Mykitiuk and Margrit Shildrick (eds), Ethics of the body: Postconventional Challenges, (MIT Press: Cambridge MA, 2005)
  • Karpin, I and O’Connell, K “Speaking into a Silence: The Australian Constitution and the Rights of Women” in Beverly Baines and Ruth Rubio (eds) The Gender of Constitutional Jurisprudence (Cambridge University Press. 2005).
  • Karpin, I “She’s Watching the Judges: Media Feedback Loops and Judicial Notice” in Margaret Thornton ed. Romancing The Tomes: Popular Culture, Law and Feminism, Cavendish Press 2002.
  • Karpin, I, "Peeking Through the Eyes of the Body: Regulating the Bodies of Women with Disabilities" in Marks, L.A. (ed), Disability, Diversability and Legal Change, Kluwer International Law Publishers,1999
  • Karpin, I, "Pop Justice: TV, Feminism and the Law" in Fineman, M and McCluskey, M (eds), Women Law and the Media, Oxford University Press, 1997

Journal articles

  • Karpin, I “Choosing Disability: Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and Negative Enhancement (2007) 15 Journal of Law and Medicine 89-103
  • Karpin, I “The Uncanny Embryos: Legal Limits to the Human and Reproduction without Women” (2006) 28(4) Sydney Law Review 599-623
  • Karpin, I and Bennett, B “Genetic Technologies and the Regulation of Reproductive Decision-Making in Australia (2006) 14 Journal of Law and Medicine 127
  • Karpin, I and O’Connell, K “Intimate Strangers: Law, Genetics, Globalisation and the ‘Human Family’” Australian Feminist Law Journal Vol 17, pp63-82, 2002
  • Karpin, I “The Genetic Connection - Owning our ‘Genetic Heritage’” Journal of Law and Medicine Vol. 7 (4) p.376, 2000
  • Karpin, I, "Reimagining Maternal Selfhood: Transgressing Body Boundaries and the Law" Australian Feminist Law Journal Vol 2, 36-62, 1994
  • Karpin, I, "Legislating the Female Body: Reproductive Technology and the Reconstructed Woman" Columbia Journal of Gender and the Law Vol 3:1 325-349, 1992

Other Publications

  • Karpin, I “Stem Cell Research: Embryos and Stem Cells – What Next after the Patterson Bill?” The Medico Legal Society of NSW, Web Publications
  • Karpin, I “Finding a Place for Altruism in Stem Cell Debates” (2006) 15(3) Human Rights Defender 17-19
  • Karpin, I Consultant Author “Human Research Ethics Handbook: Commentary on the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research involving Humans” edited by Paul Komesaroff, Loane Skene, Sue Dodds and Paul McNeill, Commonwealth Government Publishers, 2002
  • Karpin, I “Techno-Justice – open justice in a mass mediated world. A report on the Courts and the Media Forum, Sydney, 13 November 1998” March Vol 4: 1 43-48, 1999 Media and Arts Law Review
  • Karpin, I, "Foetalmania: Foetal Legal Identity and the Three Headed Monster" Polemic, Vol 5:1, 10, 1994

Book reviews

  • Karpin, I Review of “Human Dignity in Bioethics and BioLaw” by Deryck Beyleveld and Roger Brownsword in Medical Law Review, Vol 12(3) 2004.
  • Karpin, I, "The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism" Harvard Women's Law Journal Vol 14, Spring , 1991

Conference, Lectures and Address since 2000

  • “Choosing Disability and PGD in Australia and Europe”, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis International Symposium, Barcelona, Spain, 23-26 April 2008
  • “Taking Care of the Health of the Preconceived Embryo”, International Conference of the Health Embryo –Invited Plenary Speaker – Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, Nov 12-16th, 2007
  • “Gender equity in research: indirect discrimination and exclusionary criteria for research”, National Research Ethics Conference of the National Health and Medical Research Council, Melbourne, Australia, Oct 17-18th, 2007
  • “Gender Inequities in Health Research: An Australian Perspective”, Law and Bioethics Conference, University College London, Bennett, B, Karpin, I, Ballantyne, A and Rogers W, London, England, July 1-3, 2007.
  • “Legal and Medical Definitions of Sex and Gender for Health Research Purposes”, 30th International Conference on Law and Mental Health, Padua, Italy, 25th -30 June, 2007.
  • “Stem Cell Research”, Medico legal Society of NSW, Sydney, June 14th, 2007
  • “Negative Enhancement, Regulating the choice for Disability”, Somatechnics II Conference, Sydney, April 19 -21, 2007
  • “Negative Enhancement and the Niche Market for Disability”, Kings College, London, Invietd Plenary Speaker, “Feminism and the Body: An Interdisciplinary Conference” London, Engand, Jan 27-29, 2007
  • “Uncanny Embryos Revisited afer the Patterson Bill”, York Institute for Health Research Invited Speaker Series, York University, Toronto, Canada, January 18th , 2007
  • “Cosmetic and Genetic Enhancement”, York Institute for Health Research Invited Speaker Series, York University, Toronto, Canada, January 22nd, 2007
  • Negative Enhancement: Designer Babies for the niche market in disability’, 2nd Annual Conference - Centre for Health Governance, Law & Ethics, University of Sydney “Regulating the Scientific Frontier”, ‘Sydney, Australia, 24 November, 2006.
  • “Reproductive Rights and Constitutional Law”, University of Strathclyde, Faculty of Law, Guest Lecture, Glasgow, Scotland, March, 2006
  • “The Uncanny Embryos: Defining the Human and Reproduction Without Women” Keele University, Faculty of Law Seminar Series, , Keele, Stoke on Trent, England, March, 2006
  • “The Therapy/Enhancement Distinction, Anomolous Bodies and the Regulation of Disability”, Feminist Legal Theory Conference, Emory Law School, Atlanta, USA, January, 2006
  • “Constructing the Healthy Body: From Rhinoplasty to Voluntary Limb Amputation”, First Annual Conference of the Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics, “Constructions of Health”, Sydney, Australia, November 4, 2005
  • Global Policing of the Fertile Scientific Imagination”, Globalisation and Biomedicine Workshop, “Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, November 3, 2005
  • “Regulating Inheritable Modification and Body Modification,” Thematic Seminar Series – Health Law Frontiers: Conflicts Compormises and Controversies, Macquarie University, Division of Law, Sydney, Australia, October, 2005.
  • “Women versus Gametes: Regulating Reproduction in the Age of Genetic Manipulation”,Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence: Sex Gender and Rights Conference, Sydney, Australia, August, 2005
  • “Regulating Inheritable Modification and Cosmetic Body Modification” Body Modification Conference, Macquarie University, Department of Critical and Cultural Studies, Sydney, Australia, April, 2005.
  • "Regulating Inheritable Genetic Modification or Policing the Fertile Scientific Imagination: A Feminist Response," Bioethics World Congress: International Association of Bioethics in conjunction with the Feminist Approaches to Bioethics Network Crossover Session Refiguring the Body November, 2004.
  • “Genetics and legal Selfhood,”Socio-Legal Research Centre Seminar Series Griffith University School of Law, 2003.
  • “Bear in mind this is still you, simply the best in you’: Gattaca and the law Reproducing the Self in the Not-too-distant-future” Galatactic Jurisprudence conference, Griffith University Socio-Legal Research Centre, 2003.
  • “Heritable Genetic Modifications and the Law”, Guest Lecturer, Griffith University, Deparment of Arts Media and Culture: Moral Disagreement, 2003
  • “Genetic Discrimination meets unnorm,” Gender Sexuality and the Law II, Keele University, 2002
  • Feminist Legal Studies Institute, Osgoode Hall, York University, Canada “Genetics and the Legal Conception of Self”, 2001
  • “Comparative Theories of Equality: Class, Race, Gender and Sexuality.”Guest lecturer, Cornell Summer Institute of International and Comparative Law in Paris, 2000
  • “The Star Appeal of the Courts” Third Annual Crossroads Conference in Cultural Studies, Birmingham, England Panel: Tabloid Publics: Ethics, Consumption and Popular Media, 2000.
  • “The Impact of the Australian Constitution on Women” Women and Constitutional Law Conference, University of Sevilla, Spain, 2000
  • “Me Myself and Us: Hyperindividualism Meets the Communal Genetic Pool in the Discourse of the New Genetics” United States Law and Society Association Annual Conference, Miami, 2000
  • “She’s watching the Judges, Media Feedback Loops and judicial Notice” Romancing the Tomes, ANU Institute Of Humanities Conference, April, 2000