The Plunkett Centre conducts research in the following areas:
Contemporary normative theory, in particular virtue theory, and its relation to Kant's ethics and consequentialism.
Clinical ethics, in particular the goals of medicine, the canons of therapeutic responsiveness; competence, consent and decision-making about sick children; end-of-life decision-making; advance care planning; assisted reproductive technologies; organ and tissue donation; professional role ethics, the law and clinical ethics; regenerative medicine; public health ethics.
Psychiatric ethics, in particular the threat of psychopathology to moral identity and moral agency, respect for autonomy, competence and coercion, moral responsibility of impaired persons, law and psychiatry, and the ethical challenges posed by developments in neuroscience in this area.
Bioethics, in particular the Catholic Christian contribution and its debates with and relationships to contemporary secular bioethics.
Research Ethics, in particular traditional debates about ethical standards with respect to research involving human participants and research involving animals; contemporary debates about genetic technologies, biotechnologies, stem cells, biobanking, etc.
Resource allocation, in particular debates about the roles of the individual, the family, the market and the state in the provision of health care.
Computer ethics (in medical contexts), in particular the role online therapies play in treatment, reduction in costs, effectiveness, threats it poses to the clinician-patient relationship.
Chapters in Books
Articles in Refereed Journals
Articles in Conference Proceedings
Other Articles
Steve Matthews is Senior Research Fellow at the Plunkett Centre for Ethics. He has previously worked at Macquarie University, Charles Sturt University, and Monash University, where he wrote his doctorate in philosophy on the metaphysics of personal identity and its implications for ethics. He now works mainly at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, and psychiatry, publishing widely on questions of ethics in relation to these areas. The focus of his research concerns how selfhood and agency is understood in contexts of psychopathology (where the biological self is under threat) and online contexts (where the social self comes under threat). These vulnerabilities lead to losses in the capacity to secure primary goods, such as careers, and relationships. A series of ARC-funded projects have applied this framework to the cases of mental illness, addiction, and dementia. In addition, he has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles, guest-edited a range of journal special issues, and has organized a number of workshops and conferences on these and related ethical issues.
Selected publications
Selected publications
Media and public engagement
Podcasts
Cordeiro, J. J., & Kirjanenko, M. (2023). Relational Autonomy, the Ethics of Responsibility, and Supported Decision-Making for Patients with Diminished Capacity. AJOB Neuroscience, 14(3), 244-246. https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2023.2243887
We're available 9am–5pm AEDT,
Monday to Friday
If you’ve got a question, our AskACU team has you covered. You can search FAQs, text us, email, live chat, call – whatever works for you.