Prof. Jennifer A. Chandler is a Faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology at the University of Ottawa, where she is a Full Professor and the Bertram Loeb Research Chair in Organ and Tissue Donation in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section.
Professor Jennifer A. Chandler studies the legal and ethical aspects of biomedical science and technology, with a focus on the intersection of the brain sciences, law and ethics. She also works on legal policy related to organ donation and transplantation and mental health law and policy. She is a principal investigator in the Hybrid Minds project, which brings together researchers from Switzerland, Germany and Canada to examine the implications of incorporating artificial intelligence in neuroprostheses.
In 2022, Professor Chandler was elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, one of the highest honours for members of the Canadian health science research community. She is currently the Chair of a national policy assessment on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder for the Academy, an inquiry commissioned by the Government of Canada.
She has played an influential role in contentious areas of Canadian health policy. She was appointed to two Canadian Federal Government-appointed independent expert advisory panels on medical assistance in dying in the context of mental illness, and she has testified before the Canadian Parliamentary committee examining this issue.
Professor Chandler led the legal work on a new Canadian clinical practice guideline (2023) that defines death in terms of neurological function and sets criteria for the determination of death. This guideline was the culmination of several years of multidisciplinary work and has been endorsed by 15 professional medical organizations in Canada.