Rate My Professor Sarah Bush

Dr. Sarah Bush is a Professional Practice Fellow and Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Bioethics within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago in Dunedin. She holds the academic qualifications MBChB, Master of Bioethics and Health Law (MBHL), and Postgraduate Diploma in Bioethics and Health Law (PGDipBHL). As a qualified medical doctor, the focus of her Master of Bioethics and Health Law was the ethical and legal permissibility of testing embryos for low IQ. In addition to her academic roles, she contributes to the Otago Medical School as Lead Tutor in Year 3 Early Professional Experience.

Dr. Bush's teaching encompasses bioethics education for students in medicine, pharmacy, and physiotherapy. She is involved in curriculum development, coordinates and supports other tutors, and teaches Early Professional Experience (EPE) to Year 2 and Year 3 medical students. She has served on the University of Otago Human Research Ethics Committee for over six years, applying her expertise as a medical doctor, teacher, and ethicist to review health research proposals. Her research specializations include public health ethics, bioethics, and health law. She plans to pursue a PhD with a focus on public health ethics, interested in how health issues affecting New Zealanders are defined and portrayed, given their significant impacts on New Zealand society as a whole. This includes examining the potential need to shift from a libertarian framework emphasizing individual responsibility to a more communitarian, public health-centred approach.

Dr. Bush co-authored the peer-reviewed article titled "If you don't eat meat... you'll die: A mixed-method survey of health-professionals' beliefs," published in Nutrients in 2019 (McHugh, P., Smith, M., Wright, N. S., Bush, S., & Pullon, S.).