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Roxanne Mykitiuk - York University. Toronto, ON, CA

Roxanne Mykitiuk

Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School | York University

Toronto, ON, CANADA

Roxanne Mykitiuk investigates the legal, ethical and social implications of assisted reproductive and genetic technologies.

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Videos:

Making TTC Announce Bus/Subway Stops for Blind Riders Disability Law Intensive Program

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Biography

Roxanne Mykitiuk is an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University where she teaches disability, health and family law. She is the Director of the Disability Law Intensive clinical program. From 1990-92 she was Senior Legal Researcher for the Canadian Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. From 2002-2006 she was a member of the Ontario Advisory Committee on Genetics and from 2005-2008 she was a member of the Ethics Committee of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. In 2009 Roxanne was scholar in residence at the Law Commission of Ontario working on the Disability and Law Project. She is currently on the Board of Directors of ARCH Disability Law Clinic. Roxanne was the Chair of York University’s Senate from 2013-2015.

Roxanne is an active, engaged and collaborative researcher. She is the author/ co-author of numerous articles, book chapters and books investigating the legal, ethical and social implications of reproductive and genetic technologies and the legal construction and regulation of embodiment and disability. More recently her research has begun to create and investigate arts-based methods – digital stories and drama-based narratives – as a means of challenging and re-representing conceptions of disability.

She is completing work exploring the reproductive health and intergenerational justice implications of exposures to ubiquitous household toxics, especially in relation to conceptions of harm using a debility and disability justice framework. In another project, she analyzes Article 12 of the CRPD, collectively and collaboratively exploring the meaning of self-determination in health care decision making with a woman who calls herself a “schizophroenist”. In a recent SSHRC project, she is using legal research and digital story making to investigate episodic disability in the workplace and assist employers to adopt policies that are accommodating to the needs of variously positioned workers with episodic disabilities. Furthermore, Roxanne is part of an interdisciplinary team carrying out a program of research that archives, incubates, exhibits, disseminates, studies and provides access to disability art produced by disabled, mad, fat and aging/ed people through research creation activities aimed at interrogating the claim that access to art will provide disabled people with greater access to a fulfilled life beyond how full and equal access is imagined and protected under the law.

Industry Expertise (4)

Education/Learning

Research

Women

Legal Services

Areas of Expertise (9)

Health Law

Disability Law

Feminist Legal Theory

Family Law

Genetics and the Law

Assisted Reproduction Law

Reproductive Rights

Children and the Law

Bioethics

Education (4)

Columbia University School of Law: LL.M., Law 1994

University of Toronto: LL.B., Law 1989

University of Alberta: B.A., Political Science 1986

Columbia University School of Law: Degree: J.S.D, Law 2013

Affiliations (2)

  • Centre for Intellectual Property Policy McGill University : Associate Member
  • Health Law Institute University of Alberta : Research Associate

Media Appearances (1)

Why care less about the disabled fetus?

The Globe and Mail  

2012-01-19

In a controversial editorial on sex selection in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, interim editor-in-chief Rajendra Kale identified female feticide as an “evil” that “devalues women.” In his view, the deliberate use of ultrasonography to identify female fetuses followed by their abortion in some ethnic groups “is about discrimination against women in its most extreme form.” But why stop at gender? What about disability?

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Event Appearances (5)

Nonhuman Animal-Human Hybrid Embryo Research in Canada: Ethical and Legal Considerations

International Conference on the "Healthy" Embryo  London, ON

2007-11-15

Gender Equity in Health Research in Canada

30th International Congress on Law and Mental Health  Padua, Italy

2007-06-29

Characterizing the PGD Embryo: A Review of Recent Policy Positions

Ethics Matters: Joint Ethics Conference  Toronto, ON

2007-06-01

Playing up Citizen Involvement: An Experiential Workshop in the Use of Theatre for Policy Development

Nobody's Child, Everybody's Children: An International Conference on New Reproductive and Genetic Technologies  Nanaimo, BC

2007-05-24

Privacy and Other Ethical and Legal Issues in Emergency Contraception in Canada

2nd Gynaecology Ontario CME Programme  Toronto, ON

2006-04-08

Research Grants (45)

Voices of Individuals: Collectively Exploring Self-Determination

European Research Council 

2016 Insight Grant. I have been selected to work as part of an international team as a respondent to collaborate with a person who has a lived experience of schizophrenia to co-author a critical response to her experience grounded in Article 12 of the CRPD. The project is housed at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy Institute for Lifecourse and Society, Galway, Ireland. PI: Eilionoir Flynn.

From Invisibility to Inclusion: Developing and Evaluating Policies and Practices to Facilitate the Inclusion of Workers with Episodic Disabilities in Ontario Workplaces

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $297,000 over 4 years

2016 I am one of 2 co-applicants on this grant. There are 7 collaborators.

Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology, and Access to Life

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $2,500.000 over 7 years

2016 Partnership Grant. I am a co-applicant on this grant and a member of the Management Committee and Conceptual Panel. This application was ranked 1st by SSHRC.

Regulating Relations: forming families inside and outside law's reach

Australian Research Council $421,500.00 over 4 years

2014 Project Grant with J. Millbank, I. Karpin, E. Jackson and A. Stuhmcke

Experiential Education Development Grant

Osgoode Hall Law School $4000

2013 Disability Law Intensive Program, with Marian MacGregor

Law’s Slow Violence

Osgoode Hall Law School $5000

2012 Harry Arthurs Collaborative Faculty Research Grant. Workshop with Rob Nixon: “Law’s Slow Violence.” With Dayna Scott, Ruth Buchanan, Sonia Lawrence and Peer Zumbansen

Operating Grant

Canadian Institutes of Health Research $371.202 over 3 years

2011 Nominated PI. Carla Rice ($371.202 over 3 years) I am one of 6 PI’s on this grant.

Effects of Brominated Flame Retardants on Reproductive Health and Social, Legal and Ethical Aspects

CIHR $2.5 million over five years

2009 Team Grant. Legal, Ethics and Social Aspects team with shared with co-applicants Profs. J. Nisker and D.Scott

Curriculum Development Grant – family law

Osgoode Hall Law School $2000

2008 With Susan Drummond and Shelley Kierstead

Monitoring the Human Rights of People with Disabilities in Canada

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $998,000, over 5 years

2006 Applicant: Marcia Rioux. I am a co-applicant and the University Co-Leader for Theme III - Law and Policy

Health in an Unequal World: Global Ethics and Policy Choices

Canadian Institutes of Health Research $38,026 over 3 years

2006 Co-Applicant

Osgoode Hall Research Fellowship

Osgoode Hall Law School 

2006

Summer Research Fellowship

Borden, Ladner and Gervais $10000

2006 Two fellowships of $10,000 each are offered by the national law firm, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, to promote excellence in legal scholarship.

Gender Inequities in Health Research: Towards a New Regulatory Framework

Australian Research Council $300,000 over three years

2005 With Belinda Bennett (Principal Investigator), Isabel Karpin, Wendy Rogers and Patty Peppin

Travel Grant

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $1200

2005

Structural and Functional Annotation of the Human Genome for Disease Study

Genome Canada $22.2 million over four years. GE3Ls Project, 240,000 over four years

2005 I am Theme Leader for “Shifting Conceptions of Health, Disease, Illness, Normalcy and Disability?”

Exploring Key Issues of Sex/Gender and Disability in Genomics

Women’s Health Bureau, Health Canada $10000

2005 Principal Investigator

Travel Grant

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $1619

2004

Curriculum Development Fund Award

Centre for Innovation Law and Policy $5000

2004

Beyond the Margins of (Dis)Ability: Enabling Women With Disabilities to Achieve Health

SSHRC $87500 over 3 years

2004 Standard Research grant. Principal Investigator

Sharing Knowledges of Risk: Citizen Engagement with Science, Law and Biotechnology

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Law Commission of Canada, Relationships in Transition competition $40000

2004 Principal Investigator

The Nexus of Law and Biology for Emerging Technologies

Australian Research Council, Linkage-International Award $51203 AUS

2003 Chief Investigator

Reproductive Autonomy: Legal and Policy Choices

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Law Commission of Canada $20000

2003 Governance and Freedom of Choice competition Collaborator

Travel Grant

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $800

2003

Travel Grant

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $800

2002

Travel Grant

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $800

2001

Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health

Genome Canada $4.5 million over 3 years

2001 (P.I. Peter Singer) Investigator

Women, Health and the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy: Synthesizing and Disseminating Results

Women’s Health Bureau, Health Canada $1500

2001 Principal Investigator

Travel Grant

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $700

2000

Women, Health and the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy: Synthesizing and Disseminating Results

Women’s Health Bureau, Health Canada $9000

2000 Principal Investigator

The Construction of Disability and Risk in Genetic Counselling Discourse

National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (NNEWH) $55675 over 2 years

1999 Co-Investigator

The Canadian Biotechnology Strategy and Law: Implications for Gender and Health

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $6100

1999 SSHRC Special Initiative Grant: Grants to Untenured Faculty

Women’s Health: An Impact Assessment of the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy

Medical Research Council of Canada $25000

1999 Co-Investigator

The Legal Regulation and Construction of the Gendered Body and of Disability in Canadian Health Law and Policy

National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (NNEWH) $22000

1999 (year two) Principal Investigator

Grant to Prepare National Strategic Workshop on Women’s Health and the New Genetics

National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (NNEWH) $15000

1998 Principal Investigator

The Legal Regulation and Construction of the Gendered Body and of Disability in Canadian Health Law and Policy

National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (NNEWH) $25000

1998” (year 1) Principal Investigator

Grant to Prepare National Strategic Workshop on Women’s Health and the New Genetics

National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (NNEWH) $15000

1998 Co-Investigator

Travel Grant

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $900

1997

Genetics and Breast Cancer

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council $3000

1997 Small Research Grant

Seed Funding

National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (NNEWH) $5300

1997

Travel Grant

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council 

1996

Research Grant

University of Alberta 

1994 Central Research Fund (Vice-President's Discretionary Fund)

Research Grant

University of Alberta 

1994 Central Research Fund

Travel Grant

University of Alberta 

1994 Central Research Fund

Travel Grant

University of Alberta 

1993 Central Research Fund

Articles (5)

Notions of Reproductive Harm in Canadian Law: Addressing Exposures to Household Chemicals as Reproductive Torts

Canadian Journal of Comparative and Contemporary Law

2015 This article examines the potential for prenatal exposure to harmful chemicals to be approached as reproductive torts as opposed to toxic torts. Focusing on two groups of household chemicals – brominated flame retardants and phthalates – this article identifies the ways in which prenatal injury claims and birth torts (i.e. wrongful pregnancy, wrongful birth, and wrongful life cases) can inform future litigation regarding prenatal exposures to risky household chemicals.

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Understanding the Use of 'Genetic Predisposition' in Canadian Legal Decisions

McGill Journal of Law and Health

2013 Since the advent of the Human Genome Project in 1989, the ethical, legal, and social implications inherent in future genetic science and its applications have worried researchers and scholars in law and ethics. Concern that the results of genetic testing might be used to discriminate against particular individuals and groups of individuals has been paramount, prompting calls for specific legislation to protect against genetic discrimination. Against this backdrop we sought to investigate instances of genetic discrimination in Canadian legal decisions.

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Wrongful birth litigation and prenatal screening

Canadian Medical Association Journal

2008 Canadian clinicians must be aware of new standards of care resulting from national clinical practice guidelines, both to ensure best practice and to avoid malpractice litigation. Clinical practice guidelines can reduce successful malpractice actions through physician education and they may be used in court as evidence that the standard of care was met.

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Going out on a limb: prosthetics, normalcy and disputing the therapy/enhancement distinction

Medical Law Review

2008 The development of genetic technologies, nano-technologies and technologies related to artificial intelligence have provoked discussion about the different uses to which they may be put; namely, their potential for therapeutic and non-therapeutic use.

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The Canadian Assisted Human Reproduction Act: Protecting Women's Health While Potentially Allowing Human Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer into Non-Human Oocytes

The American Journal of Bioethics

2007 Open Peer Commentaries.

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