Each year, the Centre for Bioethics aims to support a practicum opportunity for undergraduate students at Western University who are interested in gaining practical exposure to, and experience with, bioethics. The practicum is supported by the Centre and its partners, London Health Sciences Centre, St. Joseph’s Health Care London, and the Middlesex-London Health Unit. Interested undergraduate students should contact the experiential learning placement coordinator in their department to learn more about this opportunity.

Practicum Students

Winter, 2026

Asghar Khan

Honours Specialization in Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Studies

Research Interests:

• Clinical ethics in hospital settings, with a focus on real-time decision-making
• Ethics of care for marginalized populations including individuals with disabilities, Indigenous communities, and older adults
• Autonomy, capacity, and consent in complex clinical, and mental health contexts
• Ethics of artificial intelligence in healthcare, particularly AI implementation and decision-support for older adults
• Health policy, institutional ethics, and systems-level governance

Asghar Khan is a Health Sciences student at Western University with a strong interest in clinical bioethics, health policy, and ethical decision-making in healthcare. Through his practicum with the Western Centre for Bioethics, he engages in hospital-based ethics work across multiple clinical units, participating in discussions around autonomy, capacity, consent, and institutional decision-making in mental health, paediatric, and complex care settings.

Asghar has supported children with disabilities and their families through the Down Syndrome Clinic at SickKids, conducted research on the implementation of artificial intelligence in healthcare for older adults at North York General Hospital, and is the Founder and President of the Western Undergraduate Research Students’ Association. He is completing an independent study on informed consent and decision-making for Indigenous Peoples living with disabilities and hopes to pursue a career in medicine with continued involvement in bioethics and health policy.

Project Description:

Asghar’s practicum at the Western Centre for Bioethics is primarily focused on applied, hospital-based ethics at London Health Sciences Centre. His work involves observing and engaging with clinical ethics discussions related to patient autonomy, capacity, consent, and institutional decision-making across a range of care settings, including long-term care, adult and child/adolescent mental health units. These experiences highlight how ethical principles are interpreted and applied in real-time clinical contexts, particularly where issues of safety, consistency of care, emotional support, and staff discretion arise.

Alongside his hospital-based work, Asghar undertakes a research component in space ethics, exploring how healthcare delivery, ethical responsibility, and patient care are navigated in space environments. Informed by discussions referencing the Institute for Earth & Space Exploration at Western and the Canadian Space Agency, this work examines how principles such as autonomy, duty of care, risk, and justice must adapt in settings where medical resources are constrained and care is inherently delayed.