Lynn Gillam is an experienced clinical ethicist, originally trained in philosophy (MA, Oxon, as a Rhodes Scholar) and bioethics (PhD). Lynn is the Academic Director of the Children’s Bioethics Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. She is also Professor in Health Ethics at the University of Melbourne, in the Department of Paediatrics, , where she teaches ethics and qualitative research design in the MD and other health professional courses. Lynn is an experienced facilitator of small and large group discussions on issues where ethical and value commitments are a stake, and often contested.
At the RCH, Lynn provides clinical ethics case consultation, policy advice and leads research in paediatric clinical ethics. In 2018, she was awarded the RCH Chairman’s Medal, in recognition of this work. Lynn is involved in research across a wide range of topics in paediatric clinical ethics, including end-of-life decision-making, the role of parents and children in decision-making, truth-telling to children, appearance-altering surgeries in children, and fertility preservation for children. She has a longstanding interest in ethics and values issues related to hearing and hearing loss.
Lynn teaches ethics in the MD course, and other health professional degree courses at the University of Melbourne, and supervises research students at Honours, Masters and PhD levels. In 2019, Lynn was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to medical education in the field of bioethics.