Tereza Hendl, PhD

Tereza Hendl is a philosopher and bioethicist. Her research interests lie at the intersection of the epistemology, ethics and regulation of emerging technologies.

Research interests

• Moral and political philosophy, feminist philosophy, normative ethics
• Ethical, social and regulatory aspects of mHealth
• Social epistemology and epistemic justice
• Decolonial perspectives on health technologies
• Algorithmic mediation and algorithmic fairness
• Philosophical conceptualisations of autonomy, agency and empowerment
• Issues related to sex, gender, sexuality and disability
• Ethical aspects of sex selection

Research projects

• Knowledge production in mHealth
• mHealth, self-management and empowerment
• Vulnerability, justice and algorithmic fairness

Tereza Hendl is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Project Co-lead on the project “META – mHealth: Ethical, legal and societal aspects in the technological age.” She is interested in debates about the democratizing potential of mHealth as well as interrogations of these technologies as a mode of reinforcing a particular self, that of the autonomous consumer. Her research currently explores the epistemology, ethical and social aspects of fertility tracking mobile applications and the underlying values and social norms they carry. She is concerned with the ways dominant social norms manifest in algorithms and the impact of algorithmic bias on human lives. She investigates how mHealth technologies can become more inclusive and just, informed by lived experiences and needs of diverse population groups and beneficent to a wide cohort of users.

Short CV

Dr Hendl holds a PhD in Philosophy from Macquarie University, Australia. Her dissertation explored the ethics of prenatal sex selection for social reasons. This project used an empirical methodology, interviewing Australian women who have selected or desired to select their child’s chromosomal sex based on gender preference. She has previously worked as a Research Associate at the University of Sydney on an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project investigating how young people with impairment resist ableism in their transition to adulthood (2015-2016). She has conducted research as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Sydney Health Ethics on the ARC Linkage Project “Regulating autologous stem cell therapies in Australia” (2016 - 2017). This interdisciplinary project promoted ethical and socially responsible innovation with stem cells. From 2017-2018 she has continued research on the Linkage Project as an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

She has contributed to public reviews of Australian policy on the use of assisted reproductive technology in clinical practice and research as well as the regulation of autologous cell and tissue products. She has appeared in a wide range of media to participate in public debates about health technologies and ensure that her scholarly work contributes to society and informs policymaking. For example, in 2015 she delivered a TEDxMacquarie University talk raising awareness about the ethical implications of sex selection for social reasons.

Awards and fellowships

In recognition of her research, Tereza Hendl was awarded the 2015 Max Charlesworth Prize in Bioethics by the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law (AABHL). She held the Caroline Miles Visiting Scholarship at the Oxford University Ethox Centre (May 2019). She was also awarded a prestigious Geneva Brocher Foundation Residency (Aug - Sept 2018) and selected to be a Visiting Fellow at the Humanities Research Institute at the Australian National University (Feb - March 2018) and major American Center for Bioethics, the Hastings Center (May 2010).

Selected publications

Book chapters

• Hendl, T., Jansky, B., and V. Wild. 2020. From Design to Data Handling: Why mHealth Needs a Feminist Perspective. Pp. 77-103 in Janina Loh and Mark Coeckelbergh (eds.). Feminist Philosophy of Technology. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.
• The META Group (Wild V., Akgül S., Eisenhut K., Hendl T., Jansky B., Machleid F., Nijsingh N., Peter N., and E. Sauerborn). 2019. “Ethical, legal and social aspects of mHealth technologies: Navigating the Field.” In: Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (Eds.): THE FUTURES OF eHEALTH. Social, legal and ethical challenges.
• Blakely, B., Hendl, T., and S. Lacey. 2019. “The Australia experience: Cultural & political factors shaping human embryo assessment during IVF.” Pp. 103-112 in E. Scott Sills and Gianpiero D. Palermo (eds.). Human Embryos and Preimplantation Genetic Technologies: Ethical, Social, and Public Policy Aspects. Cambridge: Elsevier.
• Hendl, T. 2018. “Selling the Promise of Pluripotent Stem Cells: Is It Ethically Justifiable?” Pp. 65-85 in Susanne Müller and Henning Rosenau (eds.). Stammzellen – iPS-Zellen – Genomeditierung. Stem Cells – iPS Cells – Genome Editing. Baden – Baden: Nomos.

Peer-reviewed articles

• Waldby, C., Hendl, T., Kerridge, I., Lipworth, W., Lysaght, T., Munsie, M., and C. Stewart. 2020. "The direct-to-consumer market for stem cell-based interventions in Australia: Exploring the experiences of patients." Regenerative Medicine. DIO: 10.2217/rme-2019-0089.
• Hendl, T. and Browne, T. K. 2019. “Is 'Gender Disappointment' a Unique Mental Illness?”, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (online first). DOI: 10.1007/s11019-019-09933-3.
• Wedgwood, N., Smith, L., Hendl, T., and R. Shuttleworth. 2019. “Boy Interrupted - Biographical Disruption during the Transition to Adulthood.” Sociology of Health and Illness. Online first, DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.12984.
• Waldby, C., Hendl, T., Munsie, M., Lysaght, T., Lipworth, W., Kerridge, I., and C. Stewart. 2019. “Autologous stem cell-based interventions in Australia: exploring patient experience in light of regulatory exceptionalism.” Cytotherapy, 21(5): S22-S22. DOI 10.1016/j.jcyt.2019.03.324.
• Hendl, T. 2018. “Vulnerabilities and the Use of Autologous Stem Cells in Australia.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 61 (1): 76 – 89. DOI: 10.1353/pbm.2018.0028.
• Munsie, M., Lysaght T., Hendl T., Tan, H. L., Kerridge, I. H., and Stewart, C. 2017. “Open for Business: A Comparative Study of Websites Selling Autologous Stem Cells in Australia and Japan.” Regenerative Medicine. Online first, DOI: 10.2217/rme-2017-0070.
• Lee, T., Lysaght, T., Hendl, T., W. Lipworth, I. Kerridge, I., Munsie, M., and C. Stewart. 2017. “Regulating the Stem Cell Industry: Needs and Responsibilities.” WHO Bulletin 95(9): 663-664. DOI: 10.2471/BLT.16.189977.
• Lysaght, T., Lipworth, W., Hendl, T., Kerridge, I., Lee, T.-L., Munsie, M., Waldby, C., and C. Stewart. 2017. "The Deadly Business of an Unregulated Global Stem Cell Industry." JME 43(11): 744-746. DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2016-104046.
• Hendl, T. 2017. “Queering the Odds: The Case Against Family Balancing.” IJFAB 10 (2): 4-30. DOI: 10.3138/ijfab.10.2.4.
• Hendl, T. 2017. “A Feminist Critique of Justifications for Sex Selection.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 14 (3): 427-438. DOI: 10.1007/s11673-017-9797-6. This paper was awarded the 2015 Max Charlesworth Prize in Bioethics.

Commentaries

• Wild, V., Nijsingh, N., and Hendl, T. 2019. “Taking a Step Back: The Ethical Significance of DTC Neurotechnology.” AJOB 10 (4): 170-172. DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2019.1665139.
• Hendl, T. 2016. “The Complexity of Relational Autonomy: A Holistic Approach to Embodiment.” AJOB 16 (2): 63-65. DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2015.1120807.

Other

• Hendl. T., Jansky, B. 2019. "Q&A: a patient asks about the use of apps to track their menstrual cycle and fertility. What advice should they be given?" O&G Magazine of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
• Browne, T.K. and Hendl, T. 2017. “Gender Equity, Not Sex Selection.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Blog.
• Hendl T., and B. Katz Rothman. 2016. “Sex selection.” In Nancy Naples, et al. (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Selected media appearances

• Hendl, T., and T. K. Browne. "Sad about having a boy not a girl? Your distress might be real but ‘gender disappointment’ is no mental illness." The Conversation
• Tereza Hendl contributed to discussions on Facebook's "suicide prevention service", published by: welt.de, science medica center germany, msn-news.
• TEDx Talk “Challenging Gender Selection”
• Hendl, Tereza. 2015. “Choosing Children’s Sex is an Exercise in Sexism.” The Conversation
• Debate: Professor Gab Kovacs and Dr Tereza Hendl on the ethics of sex selection and whether it should be allowed in Australia. Lateline, ABC Australia, February 7, 2017. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is Australia's major national broadcaster.