Dr Leslie Cannold

Dr Leslie Cannold is a bio-ethicist, researcher, writer, commentator and an Honorary Fellow at the School of Philosophy, Anthropology, & Social Inquiry (PASI) at the University of Melbourne, and Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine at Monash University. Leslie is a member of the ethics panel of the Infertility Treatment Authority, the statutory authority responsible for administering Victoria's Infertility Treatment Act 1995, President of Reproductive Choice Australia, a national coalition of pro-choice individuals and organisations that in early 2006 played a key role in removing the effective ban on RU486 and Spokesperson for Pro Choice Vic, a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to achieving a change to Victoria's abortion laws that maximises the reproductive rights and freedoms, fosters the dignity and respects the moral agency of women and their partners. In 2008, Leslie was appointed to the Victorian Department of Human Services Human Research Ethics Committee and to the Physiotherapists Registration Board.

Leslie is the author of the award-winning The Abortion Myth: Feminism, morality and the hard choices women make and more recently What, No Baby: Why women are losing the freedom to mother, and how they can get it back (which made the Australian Financial Review's top 101 books list for 2005).

She has been a regular guest over the years on ABC local radio, Radio National and ABC TV. Since the late 1980's her views have appeared in The Age (Melbourne), the Sydney Morning Herald, the Herald Sun (Melbourne), the Courier Mail (Brisbane) and the national broadsheet The Australian. She currently writes a weekly column called Moral Maze, which appears on Sunday in the Extra section of the Sun-Herald (Sydney) and is the resident ethicist on Brisbane radio 4BC where she speaks to Greg Cary every Thursday morning. She also speaks regularly to Deborah Cameron on ABC 702 Sydney about ethics and participates in Friday's "water-cooler" segment on 9am with David and Kim on Network Ten. In 2005, Leslie was selected as one of Australia's top 20 public intellectuals.

She is in high demand as a public speaker on issues to do with life, work, gender and ethics to community groups, professional organisations and secondary students. Leslie is also the vocalist of the Melbourne-based rock cover band Speedy Fish.

 Leslie joins Lyn Alison, Tanya Levin and Jane Caro at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention

12 Mar 2010

Gold tickets are already gone, but there are still seats left for the Rise of Atheism convention to be held in Melbourne, the first global meeting of its kind.

 Leslie on 7PM Project Talking About Xenotransplantation
2 Feb 2010

I'm on The 7pm Project tonight talking about the ethics of pigs donating organs to humans. Catch you on Network Ten!

 

 Leslie Tells ABC Listeners That Tony Abbott Will Make His Personal Religious Views About Women Political

27 Jan 2010

 Women Failed by Catholic-Run Hospitals

3 Nov 2009

With no room at the Women's, patients are at the mercy of religion.

 Leslie Talks to 4BC Morning's Host Greg Carey About The Capacity for Consent

3 Nov 2009

A district court judge has questioned the fairness of convicting a man who pleaded guilty to rape, for continuing to perform sex acts on an unconscious woman. Was the man really treated unfairly, or is the judge confused about what consent is all about?

 Leslie Talks to 4BC Morning's Host Greg Carey About Matthew John's Scandal and Sex Lies and Relationships

3 Nov 2009

Rugby league star Matthew John's infidelity has raised the issue of staying with a partner who has strayed. Greg Cary talks to author Ruth Simons, about the thought processes behind cheating.

 Can it Ever be Ethical to Let Women Die?

28 Oct 2009

A disturbing trend is emerging in the writings of those opposed to legal abortion. Since the passage of Victoria's Law Reform Act last year, they have been campaigning against the limits the new law imposes on the rights of healthcare professionals to conscientiously object to involvement in abortion.

 Something Mad About Refugee Policies

25 Oct 2009

Even if we eliminate people smugglers, the people needing smuggling won't disappear.

 Leslie on SBS Insight "In Your Genes"

13 Oct 2009

Would you want to know if you were carrying a gene that could kill you? What if there's a risk of passing it to your kids? Truly riveting television filled with Australians grappling with this issues in real life, with Leslie and Oxford Professor Julian Savulescu doing our best to offer insightful ethical comment.

 Leslie on "The Grass is Always Greener"

12 Oct 2009

Every Monday, Radio National Life Matters deconstructs some old piece of wisdom with two guests. This week Leslie and Tim Wilson ask whether the grass is really greener on the other side.

 Betrayal and the Shocking Lies of Rex Crane

11 Oct 2009

"From Hero to Zero" ran the headline, a nice one to describe the fall from grace last week of the Federal President of the Prisoners of War Association of Australia, Rex Crane.

 We Must Say "Know" to Abstinence-Only Sex Education

29 Sep 2009

Your children have a right to sex education. This right is a component of their sexual rights, themselves a subset of the human rights guaranteed to them in international laws, human rights documents and other consensus statements.

 Pulling Out the Racist Tag is a Lazy Way to Argue About Policy

18 Sep 2009

There is little evidence to support racial motives behind criticism of Obama.

 Circumcision - Who Decides?

30 Aug 2009

Circumcision used to be the done thing. Now, only around 10 per cent of Australians circumcise their male infants. But in Tasmania, they are trying to find a way to stop them. A recently released Tasmanian Law Reform Institute issues paper makes no bones about its desire to use the criminal law to prosecute some hapless Jewish, Muslim or Aboriginal parents for circumcising their boys.

 One Step Forward, Two Back, in Fight for Reproductive Rights

11 Aug 2009

RU486 is available, but in Queensland a teenager is charged over an abortion.

 Leslie Interviewed by Fairfax's Sunday Life Magazine
9 Aug 2009

In the 9 August 2009 Body Issue Leslie, Federal Minister Kate Ellis, Ad man Russell Howcroft and plastic surgeon Howard Webster chat with Libby Gorr about "The Future Perfect."

 

 When Giving Cuts Right to the Bone

2 Aug 2009

Years ago, when I was doing a Masters of Bioethics under renowned philosopher Peter Singer at Monash University in Melbourne, I signed up to the newly founded Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry.

 Is Genetic Screening and Therapy Making Us a Sorting Society?

1 Jan 2008

In her chapter in The Sorting Society: The ethics of genetic screening and therapy (ed. Loane Skene and Janna Thompson), Leslie advocates a balance between the rights of parents to decide if, when and what sort of children they bring into the world, and the need for social equity and justice.

What, no baby? What, No Baby? takes us on journey into the lives of contemporary women who plan to have it all - marriage, motherhood and work - yet have been derailed by reluctant men, insatiably demanding jobs and ever-climbing expectations of what it takes to be a "good" mother.
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The Abortion Myth book cover The Abortion Myth forges a new women-centred abortion ethic capable of preserving a woman's right to control her body and her freedom to choose or reject motherhood.
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