Professor Melodie Labuschaigne is Professor in Medical law and Ethics in the Department of
Jurisprudence in the School of Law, University of South Africa. She is a former Director of the
School of Law and Deputy Executive Dean of the College of Law at UNISA. She obtained the
degrees BA, BA (Hons), MA and DLitt from the University of Pretoria, and the degrees LLB and
LLD (in medical law) from the University of South Africa.

During 2000-2002, she lectured medical law and ethics at Adelaide University in South Australia.
She has published numerous articles on a range of medico-legal topics in local and international
journals and has presented many local and international conference papers. She is a recipient of
the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research from the University of South Africa, the
Women in Research Leadership Award, and the Hugo de Groot Prize.

Professor Labuschaigne has been involved with the revision and drafting of health legislation for many years and is regularly approached to provide legal opinions on legal issues relating to medical law. During 2016-2018 she served on the Academy of Sciences of South Africa consensus panel on Human genetics and genomics in South Africa: Ethical, legal and social implications, and has been invited to serve on the ASSAf consensus study on gene editing in 2019. She has also served on the Bioethics Advisory Panel advising the President of the SAMRC and is currently a legal member of the National Health Research Ethics Council and Ampath’s Medico-legal and Ethics Committee.