RESEARCH

Dr Neal's main research interests are in Healthcare Law, Bioethics, and Legal Theory, and her current research focuses on conscientious objection in healthcare, beginning and end of life issues, theories of property, and the interactions between law/regulation and meta-disciplinary concepts such as dignity, sanctity, and love.

Dr Neal supervises a number of doctoral research students, and welcomes applications that focus on any of the following areas: Healthcare Law/Ethics (particularly conscience, 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.

Dr Neal was Principal Investigator on two projects: the Accommodating Conscience Research Network (ACoRN) funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a British Academy/Leverhulme-funded project investigating pharmacists' perceptions of and involvement in the creation of professional ethical guidance. 

She was one of the Co-Investigators on an ESRC-funded project exploring professionals' attitudes to conscientious objection, working with colleagues in Liverpool and Glasgow.

Dr Neal was a member of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee between 2016-22, and is currently a member of the editorial board of the journal The New Bioethics. In 2015 she was the expert adviser to the Scottish Parliamentary lead committee scrutinising the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill. In 2024 she gave oral evidence to the committee scrutinising the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. In 2022 she gave evidence to the Scottish Parliamentary Committee scrutinising a petition to amend the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. She has also given oral evidence to the Irish Parliament (on assisted dying law) and to the Isle of Man parliament (on abortion law), and has provided written evidence to the Westminster and New Zealand parliaments on assisted dying. She recently chaired the Advisory Board of the CORALE project ('Conscientious Objection after Repeal: Abortion, Law and Ethics'), based at Trinity College Dublin. She is also currently a member of two other expert panels.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (since 2014)

 Books & book chapters

• 'A Right to Refuse to Kill? Human Rights and Conscientious Objection to "Assisted Dying" in the UK' in E Wicks and N Papadopoulou, Research Handbook on Human Rights Law and Health (forthcoming, Elgar, 2025)
• 'The Idea of Vulnerability in Healthcare Law and Ethics: From the Margins to the Mainstream' in Bedford and Herring (eds) Embracing Vulnerability (Routledge, 2020)
• 'Conscientious Objection, "Proper Medical Treatment" and Professionalism: The Limits of Accommodation for Conscience in Healthcare' in J Adenitire (ed) Religious Beliefs and Cosncientious Exemptions in a Liberal State (Hart, 2019)
• ‘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)
• Ethical Judgments: Re-writing Medical Law (Hart, 2016) (co-editor and contributor)
• ‘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

• Is Conscientious Objection Incompatible with healthcare professionalism?‘’ (2019) The New Bioethics 25(3): 221-235 (with S Fovargue)
• 'Conscience as Agent-Integrity: A Defence of Conscience-Based Exemptions in the Healthcare Context’ (2016) Medical Law Review 24(4): 544–570 (with S Fovargue)
• ‘Devolving Abortion Law’ (2016) Edinburgh Law Review 20(3): 399-404
• ‘When Conscience Isn’t Clear: Greater Glasgow Health Board v Doogan and Another [2014] UKSC 68’ (2015) Medical Law Review
• ‘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’ (2014) Medical Law Review 22 (3): 409-421
• ‘“In Good Conscience” Conscience-Based Exemptions and Proper Medical Treatment’ (2015) Medical Law Review 23(2):221-241 (with S Fovargue)
• ‘Respect for human dignity as substantive basic norm’ (2014) International Journal of Law in Context, 10(1): 26-46

Healthcare law and ethics

Legal theory / Jurisprudence

Theories of property

Healthcare law and bioethics

Conscientious objection in healthcare

Law and ethics of 'assisted dying'

Law and ethics of abortion

The nature and meaning of healthcare

Legal theory / Legal philosophy

Human rights and healthcare

Theories of property