Institutional frameworks and terms of reference: The public discussion on clinical xenotransplantation in Australia

This paper explores how institutional frameworks compromised the potential for public engagement on clinical xenotransplantation in Australia. Through critical discourse analysis, these limitations are exposed through two factors: the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Act, which limits public consultation to being responsive; and the terms of reference provided to the Xenotransplantation Working Party, which constrained their consultative practices. These findings contribute towards understandings of public participatory practices by examining how frameworks that exist prior to public involvement, including institutional acts and terms of reference, can marginalize the publics and continue to give authority to those voices that already hold privilege. As a result, there is a need to alter how public consultation is framed in the NHMRC Act, which will provide an opportunity to reframe and improve consultative practices and potentially facilitate meaningful discursive public debate and engagement on scientific matters in Australia.