Mary Neal

My main research interests are in Healthcare Law, Bioethics, and Legal Theory, and my current research focuses on beginning and end of life issues, theories of property, and meta-disciplinary concepts such as dignity, sanctity, and love. I am currently writing several articles/chapters on conscientious objection, abortion, and assisted dying, and I am also working on a monograph on the concepts of personhood and property in the context of pregnancy, under contract with Routledge.

I supervise a number of doctoral research students, and I welcome applications in Healthcare Law and/or Ethics (particularly beginning and end of life issues, the nature of healthcare, and the professional/patient relationship), Legal Theory/Philosophy, Human Dignity, and theoretical aspects of Property.

I am currently a member of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee, and in February 2014 I was appointed as the Adviser to the Parliamentary Committee scrutinising the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill.

Some recent and forthcoming publications include:

Books & book chapters

• The Jurisprudence of Pregnancy: Concepts of Conflict, Persons and Property (Routledge; forthcoming 2017)
• Ethical Judgments: Re-writing Medical Law (Hart, 2016) (co-editor and contributor)
• ‘Discovering dignity: unpacking the emotional content of killing narratives’ in H Conway and J Stannard (eds) The Emotional Dynamics of Law and Legal Discourse (Hart, 2016)
•  ‘Locating Lawful Abortion on the Spectrum of Proper Medical Treatment’ in S Fovargue and A Mullock (eds.) The Legitimacy of Medical Treatment: What Role for the Medical Exception? (Routledge, 2015) 124-141

Peer-reviewed journal contributions

•  ‘Death benefits: Physician-assisted dying, justification, and the problem of posthumous interests” (in progress)
• ‘Conscience as Integrity: Defending Conscience Rights in the Healthcare Context’ (with Sara Fovargue) (in press, 2016)
• ‘When Conscience Isn’t Clear: Greater Glasgow Health Board v Doogan and Another [2014] UKSC 68’ Medical Law Review (published online 30 August 2015)
• ‘Commentary: The Scope of the Conscience-Based Exemption in Section 4(1) of the Abortion Act 1967: Doogan and Wood v NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board [2013] CSIH 36’  Medical Law Review,(Summer 2014) 22 (3): 409-421 (first published online January 20, 2014)
• ‘In Good Conscience: Conscience-Based Exemptions and Proper Medical Treatment’ Medical Law Review (published online 5 May 2015) (with Sara Fovargue)
• ‘Respect for human dignity as substantive basic norm’ (2014) International Journal of Law in Context, 41(1)

Healthcare Law

Bioethics

Legal Theory / Jurisprudence

Theories of Property

Healthcare Law and Bioethics

Legal Theory / Legal Philosophy

Human Rights

Theories of Property