1. Health care law and ethics generally. I have particular interests in: - consent and capacity. - decision making for the 'vulnerable'. - issues relating to capacity, consent, risk and regulation. - clinical research involving human and non-human animals. - developing biotechnologies (such as xenotransplantation). - reproduction and reproductive technologies. - organ donation and transplantation. - children and medical treament. - conscientious objection. 2. Family law - especially issues around parents, parenthood and reproductive technologies, children and childhood - particularly children and health.

Michaelmas Term 2021

Lecturer and seminar leader on Law 300 Health Care Law and Ethics. 

My research interests are in the fields of healthcare law and ethics and family law (particularly matters relating to children and health). I have published widely on issues raised by developing/emerging biotechnologies (such as xenotransplantation), risk and regulation, consent and capacity (children and adults), and decision-making for the ‘vulnerable’. I have a long-standing interest in matters related to reproduction, including reproductive technologies, court enforced caesarean sections, and birth choices more broadly. My recent work has focused on the role and accommodation of conscientious objection in healthcare practice, including in pharmacies.

Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Law Review (Oxford University Press).

AHRC Peer Review College member.

External Examiner - Cardiff University; King's College London.

I am currently working on four projects:

(i) a UKRI AHRC funded project with Lucy Frith, Anna Chiumento, Caroline Redhead (Liverpool), Heather Draper and Paul Baines (Warwick), looking at ethical decision-making in resetting NHS paediatric and maternity services after the first wave of Covid-19: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/departments/health-services-research/key-projects/resetethics/. We are currently writing four papers to disseminate our findings.

(ii) a British Academy/Leverhulme funded project with Mary Neal (Strathclyde) exploring pharmacists' perceptions of ethical conflict and professional guidance in the light of the revised General Pharmaceutical Council Standards of Conduct, Ethics and Performance. We have interviewed pharmacists in the UK about the role of personal values in their practice, and how this fits with professional expectations. Our final report has been published and we are currently writing two articles in which we will disseminate our findings.

(iii) a Royal Society of Edinburgh funded project with Mary Neal (Strathclyde) and Stephen Smith (Cardiff), in which we have established the Accommodating Consciencr Research Network (ACoRN). The Network is exploring the 'what', 'why', 'how', and 'when' of accommodating claims of conscience within health care practice.

(iv) I am writing a chapter for a collection of essays looking at 'Leading Works in Health Law and Ethics', which I am co-editing with Craig Purshouse (Liverpool). This collection will be published by Routledge in 2022.