HKU Centre for Medical Ethics and Law

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐚𝐰 𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐊𝐔 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥, 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡. It brings together bioethicists, academic lawyers, medical scientists, and other scholars to conduct cutting edge bioethical and legal research and contribute to policy development in flagship areas like population and global health, mental health and capacity, and digital health and emergent technologies.

31/10/2026

📌 Roundtable: The Development of and Professional Guidance on in
📖 You can read the Short and Extended Abstracts at this link: https://cmel.hku.hk/events/roundtable-the-development-of-regulation-and-professional-guidance-on-medical-ai-in-hong-kong/

CMEL held the Roundtable on the Development of Regulation and Professional Guidance on Medical AI in Hong Kong on 18–19 Sep 2026. The objectives of the roundtable were to explore:
(a) how best to regulate and govern medical AI (including, but not limited to, AI medical devices) in Hong Kong;
(b) the responsibilities of in Hong Kong regarding their use of AI; and
(c) the provision of guidance in the form of guidelines to doctors on these responsibilities.

PHG Cambridge and the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine were co-organisers of the roundtable.

Speakers from the following organisations and the participants had a lively discussion at the roundtable:
CUHK Medicine
Department of Health
數字政策辦公室 Digital Policy Office
醫務衞生局 Health Bureau
Hong Kong Academy of Medicine
醫院管理局 Hospital Authority
HKU Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, HKU Faculty of Law and HKU Medicine
HKU Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit
Johnson Stokes & Master
Medical Council of Hong Kong
MinterEllison, Sydney, Australia
私隱公署 PCPD
PHG Cambridge
School of Law, City University of Hong Kong
Standing Committee on AI and Ethics, Hong Kong Bar Association
Tencent Healthcare

Thank you to all the speakers and participants.

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24/09/2026

📌 New Book: Planetary Health Law and Governance (Open Access) (Cambridge University Press)

Professor Eric C. Ip, Co-Director of the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law at The University of Hong Kong, has recently published Planetary Health Law and Governance, the first dedicated scholarly text on the legal and institutional architecture of planetary health.

This timely Cambridge Element, available open access in the Elements in Earth System Governance series, examines the legal infrastructure needed to confront the intertwined health and environmental crises of the Anthropocene. The work introduces planetary health law as an emerging transdisciplinary paradigm that brings together global health law and international environmental law to address the effects of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution on humanity and the wider biosphere. It identifies the limits of existing frameworks, which remain largely voluntary and anthropocentric, and argues for a comprehensive legal regime that recognises both the human right to a healthy planet and a planetary right to health. This integrated approach, Professor Ip contends, would catalyse systemic institutional reform. Among the principal proposals are a Planetary Health Organization to coordinate the existing efforts of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, and a Planetary Health Tribunal to enforce ecocentric norms and strengthen accountability.

🔗URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/planetary-health-law-and-governance/B9A13CA4D71E73245686CEE1EAE0043D

22/07/2026

[Open for Registration NOW]

We are excited to announce that registration is now open for the Medical Law Conference. This Conference is jointly organized by the Task Force on Laws for Healthcare Practitioners under the Professionalism and Ethics Committee of the Academy and the Hong Kong Advocacy Training Council (HKATC) established by the Hong Kong Bar Association, with support from the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law (CMEL) of the University of Hong Kong and the Law Society of Hong Kong. The conference is scheduled for 29 August 2026 (Saturday), 9:00am – 4:30pm.

This conference aims to introduce the fundamental principles of medical negligence and provide an update on recent legal developments, featuring a live demonstration to demonstrate and analyse the conduction of cross-examination of expert witnesses in civil court proceedings. The Conference will also examine professional responsibilities in regard to expert witness opinion and the reporting of child abuse.

Please find the event details, tentative programme and results of CME/CPD accreditation here.

Register now - https://online.hkam.org.hk/form/pec20260829

In-person and online attendance are both welcome. Please register on or before 20 August 2026 (Thursday).

We look forward to your participation in this conference.

For any enquiries, please contact us at [email protected].

21/07/2026

As artificial intelligence transforms healthcare, we must move beyond traditional approaches to ensure that safety remains an inviolable precondition of care. 🤖 By establishing essential system conditions, such as aligned governance, adaptive capacity, co-created solutions, automated visibility, and cohesive signalling, we can create the structural and foundational requirements needed to achieve transformational change in patient safety.

Engaging all key stakeholders in the co-creation of a broad strategy for Patient Safety in the Era of AI is essential to ensure that the pivotal opportunity to use AI to substantially improve patient safety is fully realised throughout the nation. 🌍

NAM-HKU Fellow Ms Julianna Yeung is a co-author of National Academy of Medicine’s new commentary on the topic: “Patient Safety in the Era of AI: Draft Conditions for the Design of Safe Care”. ✍️

📖 Read the full commentary: https://nam.edu/perspectives/patient-safety-in-the-era-of-ai-draft-conditions-for-the-design-of-safe-care/ 🔗

13/07/2026

📢 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗛𝗞𝗨 & 𝗖𝗨𝗛𝗞 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀!

As you may be aware, the 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙣 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚-𝙨𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙊𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 takes effect on 31 July 2026. Are you ready to navigate advance care planning and end-of-life conversations?

Prof. Emmanuel Cheung (HKU Centre for Medical Ethics and Law) & Dr. Ann Lau (CUHK Centre for Bioethics香港中文大學生命倫理學中心) invite you to take part in a 10-minute anonymous survey exploring medical students' knowledge and preparedness in this important area.

✅ Voluntary & confidential (only aggregate data reported)
✅ Open to MBBS (The University of Hong Kong) & MBChB (The Chinese University of Hong Kong 香港中文大學 - CUHK) students
✅ Ethics approved (HREC, HKU – EA250716)
🔗 Take the survey here: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eW35gjGnwzz98iy

Your insights truly matter. Questions? Reach out to Prof. Cheung ([email protected]) or Dr. Lau ([email protected]). You can also send us a message directly!

Let's get the conversation started — your input lights the way. Thanks for being part of this! ✨

HKU Centre for Medical Ethics and Law CUHK Medicine CUHK Centre for Bioethics香港中文大學生命倫理學中心

30/06/2026

📌Medical law & ethics updates in our latest newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/3dbes583

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/3mCkVaZ

HKU Faculty of Law
HKU Medicine

28/05/2026

📌Event Title: Author Meets Critics: Re-considering the Ethics of Slow Codes
📌Tue 2 Jun | 3pm-4:30pm HKT
📌Venue: 3SR-Lecture Theatre 1, 1/F, HKUMed Academic Building, No. 3 Sassoon Road, The University of Hong Kong (HKU)

🔗Registration and details: https://cmel.hku.hk/events/author-meets-critics-re-considering-the-ethics-of-slow-codes/

Abstract
A recent publication invites the readers to re-consider the ethics of slow codes, otherwise known as show codes. These are sub-optimal resuscitative efforts. This practice is potentially very common yet controversial. In this session we will revisit this practice and critically review the recent publication that justifies it. The publication can be seen here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12245-026-01161-w

Speakers
Prof Emmanuel Cheung
Clinical Assistant Professor of Practice, Critical Care Medicine Unit, HKUMed and Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit (joint appointment), School of Clinical Medicine, HKU

Prof Teresa Kuan
Associate Professor, Anthropology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong 香港中文大學人類學系

Dr Zohar Lederman
Clinical Practitioner, HKUMed Emergency Medicine, HKU

Prof Craig Purshouse
Associate Professor, HKU Faculty of Law
Deputy Director, HKU Centre for Medical Ethics and Law
Deputy Director, Centre for Private Law
HKU

HKU Medicine

26/05/2026

“Mixed Medicine: Plural Healing Cultures” Symposium

📌Date & Time:
28 May 2026, 9:15-17:15 (Day One)
29 May 2026, 9:15-12:30 (Day Two)
📌Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, 1/F, HKUMed Academic Building, 3 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam

🔗Register here: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=106656

🔗Learn more: https://mehu.hku.hk/25-26-mixed-medicine/

Abstract
‘Mixed Medicine: Plural Healing Cultures’ is an interdisciplinary symposium that will be held over one and a half days from 28-29 May, 2026 at the University of Hong Kong. This event is co-organised by the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit (MEHU) and the Department of History, with the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law (CMEL) as a supporting organisation. The symposium will feature a keynote session, individual and panel presentations and a roundtable discussion to close the event.

The symposium will examine the cultural, historical and practical intersections between diverse healing philosophies and explore the dynamics of medical pluralism, the challenges of integrating different medical systems and the complex forces shaping the outcomes, from the parallel development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western medicine frameworks in Hong Kong to their extensive intersecting networks with other healing systems regionally and globally.

Wide-ranging presentations from history, anthropology, social sciences, ethics and the medical humanities to medicine, public health and allied health disciplines will explore how different medical systems have complemented, co-existed and clashed within various geopolitical contexts and timeframes and ask how the narratives of healing have influenced cultural identities and shaped the ethics surrounding healthcare. The presentations will contribute to the discourse on medical pluralism and transcultural healthcare exchanges in an era of globalisation. We welcome scholars, teachers, healthcare professionals and students to join this timely and ongoing conversation.

Keynote Speaker:
Professor Clara Bik-San LAU, The University of Hong Kong

Speakers/ Moderators (In alphabetical order of surnames):

Dr Kelvin CHAN, Hong Kong Baptist University
Professor Emmanuel CHEUNG, The University of Hong Kong
Mr Ivan FAN, The University of Hong Kong
Prof Carl HILDEBRAND, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Pauline Po-Ling LUK, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Andrew Thomas PARK, The University of Hong Kong
Ms Zhaohe SHI, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Ria SINHA, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Md. Sanwar SIRAJ, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Alison SO, The University of Hong Kong
Ms Xiaofan SUN, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Bobby TAM, The University of Hong Kong
Ms Cecilia TAM, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Carol TSANG, The University of Hong Kong
Ms Lory Shiu Tze WONG, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Danqing YIN, The University of Hong Kong
Dr Jingjing ZHOU, The University of Hong Kong

Co-organisers:
Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit (MEHU), The University of Hong Kong

Supporting Organisation:
Centre for Medical Ethics and Law (CMEL), The University of Hong Kong

HKU Centre for Medical Ethics and Law
HKU Faculty of Law
HKU Medicine
History Department, HKU
The University of Hong Kong

For general inquiries, please contact Mr Edison Cheng at [email protected].

07/05/2026

Should assisted dying be legalised? Register NOW to attend our symposium on assisted dying.

Event: International Symposium on Medically Assisted Dying: Global Trends and Asian Perspectives
Sat 23 May | 9am - 5pm HKT
Venue: 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
Details: https://cmel.hku.hk/events/international-symposium-on-medically-assisted-dying-global-trends-and-asian-perspectives/

Abstract
Many jurisdictions have legislation that allows terminally ill patients to voluntarily end their lives, either through self-administration of medication or with assistance from healthcare staff. While medically assisted dying may be ethically justified in liberal societies that value personal autonomy and self-determination, it is essential to consider what is morally appropriate in other cultural contexts, such as Hong Kong. This international symposium seeks to explore diverse cultural perspectives on the ethical and legal challenges associated with medically assisted dying. Its primary goal is to foster cross-cultural dialogue among distinguished scholars, ethicists, legal experts, clinicians, and policymakers to identify common ground, inform future research, and develop inclusive, ethically sound, and culturally relevant legislative proposals for Hong Kong.

Speakers (in alphabetical order by last names)
1. Prof Duan-Rung CHEN, National Taiwan University
2. Prof Mark J. CHERRY, St. Edward's University
3. Ms Daisy CHEUNG, The University of Edinburgh
4. Prof Emmanuel Cheung, The University of Hong Kong
5. Prof Ruiping FAN, City University of Hong Kong
6. Prof Chris GASTMANS, KU Leuven
7. Prof Mohammed GHALY, Hamad Bin Khalifa University
8. Prof Ana S. ILTIS, Wake Forest University
9. Dr Md Sanwar SIRAJ, The University of Hong Kong
10. Dr Simon WALKER, University of Otago
11. Prof Jue WANG, Xi'an Jiaotong University
12. Prof Ben WHITE, Queensland University of Technology
13. Prof Ellen Y. ZHANG, University of Macau

HKU Faculty of Law
HKU Medicine
Hong Kong Academy of Medicine
The University of Hong Kong

Address

Hong Kong

Telephone

+85239171845

Website

https://cmel.hku.hk/

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