I have a DPhil in Law from Oxford, and my main research relates to medical law/health law, bioethics, and disability in law and philosophy. Much of my current work also focuses on equality, human rights, and feminist legal theory.
I am also a qualified barrister and solicitor in Ontario, Canada, and prior to starting my academic work I practised law for some years. I first studied law at McGill University in Canada.
Research
I am especially interested in the philosophical foundations that inform the law. Much of my current research examines legal and ethical issues surrounding the selection against disability, including in relation to eugenics, and to gender equality. An important part of my research also focuses on pregnancy and the concept of personhood. I have recently proposed a new understanding of personhood in relation to pregnancy, which would call for a stronger set of rights associated with pregnancy, and a rethinking of the requisites for the full equality of women. My argument focuses on the personhood of the person who is pregnant, rather than on the personhood of the fetus. I have also written on stigma theory and human rights, and on the relationship between offensive speech and free speech.
My work is being published in leading generalist law and bioethics journals, including the Modern Law Review, Legal Studies, the Journal of Medical Ethics (including a Feature Article), and the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. I am also writing a monograph (under contract with Cambridge University Press) on selecting against disability and state neutrality, and I am one of the editors of an upcoming edited collection (under contract with Oxford University Press) on philosophy and disability law. I also edited a Special Issue of a journal, which followed on from an interdisciplinary conference I convened in Oxford. I frequently speak about my research at major conferences in the UK and abroad.
Teaching
I have taught many different law subjects. More recently, these include Medical Law and Ethics, Jurisprudence, and Tort Law, as well as a course I designed for the Law Faculty on Disability and Equality. Previously, I also taught Contract Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Administrative Law.
At the postgraduate level, I have taught BCL seminars in Medical Law and Ethics, and have supervised postgraduate research. I have also assessed DPhil research at different stages, in relation to medical law and ethics, disability law, and legal philosophy.
Selected Publications
Forthcoming monograph (under contract with Cambridge University Press) on selecting against disability and state neutrality
Forthcoming, co-editor of edited collection (under contract with Oxford University Press) on philosophy and disability law
Forthcoming, chapter on legal and ethical issues surrounding infants with a life-limiting condition, in above edited collection (with OUP) on philosophy and disability law
Forthcoming, co-author of chapter on disability law and philosophical foundations, in edited above collection (with OUP) on philosophy and disability law
‘Gestation most certainly matters, but it need not involve an “emotional relationship”’ Journal of Medical Ethics (2024), DOI: 10.1136/jme-2024-110412
‘A Right to Live Without Stigma? Examining Negative Stereotyping, Negative Messages, and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights’ (with Jonathan Herring), Legal Studies (2024), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/1st.2024.27
‘The Joys of Fragile X: Understanding the Strengths of Fragile X and Delivering a Diagnosis in a Helpful, Holistic Way’ (with Jonathan Herring et al.), Neurodiversity, Volume 2: 1-13 (2024)
‘Naming and Describing Disability in Law and Medicine’ (with Jonathan Herring), (2024) 33(3) Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 401
‘Defending Superior Moral Status in Pregnancy: A Response to Commentaries’ (2024) 50 Journal of Medical Ethics 31
‘Discrimination in Abortion Law and the Message the Law is Sending: R (Crowter) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’ (2024) 87(1) Modern Law Review 218
‘Pregnancy and Superior Moral Status: A Proposal for Two Thresholds of Personhood’ (2024) 50 Journal of Medical Ethics 12 (Feature Article)
Suicide and the Law (Elizabeth Wicks, Hart 2023) (2024) 87(4) Modern Law Review 1066 (book review)
Guest Editor, special issue of The New Bioethics on ‘Prenatal Testing, Disability, and the Ethical Society’, volume 29, issue 3, 2023
‘Prenatal Testing, Disability, and the Ethical Society’ (2023) 29(3) The New Bioethics 195 (guest editorial)
‘Prenatal Testing, Disability Equality, and the Limits of the Law’ (2023) 29(3) The New Bioethics 202
The Disability Bioethics Reader (Joel Michael Reynolds and Christine Wieseler, eds, Routledge, 2022) (Autumn 2023) 31(4) Medical Law Review 623 (book review)
The Disabled Contract: Severe Intellectual Disability, Justice and Morality (Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry, Cambridge University Press, 2021) (2023) 86(1) Modern Law Review 293 (book review)
Good Ethics and Bad Choices: The Relevance of Behavioral Economics for Medical Ethics (Jennifer S. Blumenthal-Barby, The MIT Press, 2021) (2022) 28(2) The New Bioethics 188 (book review)
‘Abortion on the Basis of a Risk of Disability: The Parents’ Interests and Shared Interests’ in AM Phillips, TC de Campos and J Herring, Philosophical Foundations of Medical Law (Oxford University Press 2019)
Selected Talks
‘Pregnancy and Legal Personhood: Learning from Philosophy to Improve the Law’, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference 2024, University of Bristol, September 2024
‘Prenatal Testing, the Concept of Disability, and Bonding’, invited speaker and panellist, in a panel on ‘The Future of the Concept of Disability in Biomedicine and Health Law’, International Academy of Law and Mental Health XXXVIIIth Congresss in Barcelona, July 2024
‘Disability as a Starting Point, and the Law’s Philosophical Foundations’, Social Sciences Equality and Diversity Research Spotlight Event, Oxford Department of International Development, May 2024 (invited speaker)
Commentary on book Legal Capacity, Disability and Human Rights (book launch), Oxford, November 2023 (invited speaker)
‘Medical Provision of Information during Prenatal Testing: Disability, Autonomy, and the Challenge of Neutrality’, Oxford Bioethics Society, Oxford, November 2023 (invited speaker)
‘Disability Rights, Women’s Rights, and a New Right in the (Abortion) Rights Debate’, European Human Rights Law Conference 2023, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, September 2023
‘Justice in Pregnancy Requires More than Equality: A New Argument on Personhood for a Stronger Legal Response’, Workshop on Pregnancy and the Law, Stefan Cross Centre for Women, Equality & Law, University of Southampton Law School, September 2023
‘Pregnancy and Superior Moral Status: A Proposal for Two Thresholds of Personhood’, Institute of Medical Ethics, July 2023 (invited speaker)
‘The Law’s Messages about the Value of Disabled Lives: Reflections on a Recent Challenge to the Law on Abortion on the Grounds of Disability’ (co-presenter), Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference 2023, June 2023
‘Abortion on the Grounds of Disability, and Abortion on the Grounds of a Life-Limiting Condition: How Similar are the Ethical Considerations?’, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference 2023, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, April 2023
‘Integrating Disability Issues into Law Teaching’, Wadham Cross-College Curriculum Diversity Workshop on Disability, Wadham College, Oxford, November 2022 (invited speaker)
Convenor of conference on ‘Prenatal Testing, Disability, and the Ethical Society: Reflections Following Crowter’, and talk on ‘Prenatal Testing, Disability Equality, and the Limits of the Law’, St Stephen’s House, University of Oxford, March 2022
‘Rethinking Ethical Parental Choice: State Neutrality in the Use of Certain Technologies Which Can End or Prevent the Lives of Disabled Human Beings’, European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics Annual Conference, organised by the Ethox Centre and the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, September 2019
‘State Neutrality, Parental Choice, and Disability’, Healthcare Disparities: Disruptive Healthcare Technologies and the Patient, University of Manchester, June 2019
‘The Ethics of Ending the Lives of Disabled Human Beings Before Birth: What Does a Just Society Require?’ Canadian Bioethics Society Annual Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada), May 2018
‘A Neutral State? Medical Law and Ethics, Disability and Selecting Children’, Oxford Disability Law and Policy Conference, University of Oxford, February 2018