I have a DPhil in Law from Oxford, and my research is in the field of medical law and ethics. Much of my current work also focuses on disability in law and philosophy.
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 interested in a broad range of issues in medical law and ethics, and in relation to disability. I am particularly interested in the philosophical foundations and theoretical issues that inform the law in these areas.
Much of my current research examines the law on certain techniques that can prevent the birth of disabled children, and associated ethical considerations, including in relation to eugenics. I am currently writing a monograph (under contract), which examines whether the state can achieve political neutrality in relation to selection and to disability.
I am also one of the editors of an upcoming edited collection (under contract) on philosophy and disability law. Recently I was the guest editor of a special issue of a journal, which published articles following a conference I organised in Oxford on the ethics of prenatal testing for disability.
Among other things, I have recently proposed a new understanding of personhood in relation to pregnancy. My approach can support calls for increased legal protections and rights associated with pregnancy.
Some other projects I am currently working on include an analysis of the law’s approach to infants diagnosed with a life-limiting condition, and of the way we evaluate the value of a very short human life. I am also examining negligence and informed consent, manipulation and autonomy, human rights and the relationship between offensive speech and free speech, and the meaning of ethical discourse.
Teaching
I teach several different undergraduate law subjects, including Medical Law and Ethics, Jurisprudence, and Tort Law, as well as a course I designed for the Law Faculty on Disability and Equality.
At the postgraduate level, I teach BCL seminars in Medical Law and Ethics, and supervise postgraduate research.
Prior to joining Exeter, I worked at a number of other Oxford colleges, principally as a Stipendiary Lecturer in Law at Oriel College and Wadham College. I have taught many law subjects: in addition to the ones listed above, I have also taught Contract Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Administrative Law.
Selected Publications
Forthcoming monograph (under contract) on selecting against disability and state neutrality
Forthcoming, co-editor of edited collection (under contract) on philosophy and disability law
Forthcoming, chapter on legal and ethical issues surrounding the treatment of infants with a life-limiting condition, in edited collection on philosophy and disability law
Forthcoming, co-author of chapter on disability law and philosophical foundations, in edited collection on philosophy and disability law
‘Naming and Describing Disability in Law and Medicine’ (with Jonathan Herring), Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 2024
‘Defending Superior Moral Status in Pregnancy: A Response to Commentaries’, Journal of Medical Ethics, 2023
‘Discrimination in Abortion Law and the Message the Law is Sending: R (Crowter) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’, Modern Law Review, 2023
‘Pregnancy and Superior Moral Status: A Proposal for Two Thresholds of Personhood’, Journal of Medical Ethics, 2023 (feature article)
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’ (guest editorial), The New Bioethics, 2023
‘Prenatal Testing, Disability Equality, and the Limits of the Law’, The New Bioethics, 2023
The Disability Bioethics Reader (Joel Michael Reynolds and Christine Wieseler, eds, Routledge, 2022), Medical Law Review (book review), 2023
The Disabled Contract: Severe Intellectual Disability, Justice and Morality (Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry, Cambridge University Press, 2021), Modern Law Review (book review), 2022
Good Ethics and Bad Choices: The Relevance of Behavioral Economics for Medical Ethics (Jennifer S. Blumenthal-Barby, The MIT Press, 2021), The New Bioethics (book review), 2022
‘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
‘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
‘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
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
