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Durham Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences Blog

The CELLS Blog offers a multidisciplinary platform for commentary and analysis on a range of subjects and themes related to the ethical, social and regulatory issues raised by the life sciences. We welcome submissions from students, early career researchers, policymakers, academics from all relevant fields, lawyers, healthcare professionals and support services, civil society organisations and anyone with a vested interest in the relevant subject area broadly construed.

To submit a blog post for consideration please note the following guidelines:

  • Word limit: 500-750 words.
  • Please provide three to four keywords and an appropriate image with your post if possible.
  • The title should be short and precise.
  • Contributions should be written in English and in accessible language that will appeal to readers from different fields of study.
  • References should be in the form of embedded hyperlinks in-text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes.
  • The blog is aimed at a multidisciplinary readership at all learning levels and contributions should be widely accessible. Technical language and jargon should be explained or otherwise avoided.
  • Posts should reflect original work, but we welcome contributions that aim to promote published research papers, ongoing projects and reflective reviews of lectures and events.
  • Blogs will not be peer-reviewed but will be reviewed by the editorial staff for relevance, originality, timeliness, topic, style and focus.
  • Blogs under consideration elsewhere or those already published on other platforms will not be considered.

Submit draft blogs as an email attachment to Emma Cave at emma.cave@durham.ac.uk including in the subject line ‘CELLS blog submission: title of blog: author name’. Please note that during busy periods in the academic year, it may take longer to respond.

 

Latest Blogs from CELLS

Narratives of Consent and Reproductive Subjects: Tales of Invisibility

Narratives of Consent

The Need for a Constitutional Solution to the 'Duty to Die' Concern

Benedict Douglas comments on the concern of those opposed to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Life that it will not sufficiently protect people from feeling that they have a 'duty to die'.
Duty to die

Patents & Stem Cell-Based Embryo Models in Europe: The Need for Nuanced Bioethics Scrutiny?

Aisling McMahon comments on the application of European patent law to embryo models
Patents In Humans Logo

End of Life Care for Patients with Severe Eating Disorders in Canada and Great Britain

Rachel Jenkins comments on developments in the care available to individuals with severe eating disorders in Canada and Great Britain.
Nurse holding a patients hand

The advent of Artificial Wombs - are we nearing more restrictive abortion laws in England and Wales?

Francesca Mesure, MJur candidate at Durham University Law School, draws on her undergraduate dissertation research into artificial wombs to explore the potential impact of this novel assisted gestative technology on the viability threshold, and the pressure it may put on abortion regulation.
Young woman with pregnancy test in hands

From Farm to Table, Not Lab to Label: Italy's Ban on Lab-Grown Meat

Scarlett Swain, CELLS Member and PhD researcher at Durham University Law School, examines a recent legal development affecting efforts to address the environmental consequences of animal agriculture by replacing meat from animals with lab-grown meat.
Image of a cow in a barn

Law and policy can do more to address adolescence in early adulthood

Emma Cave and Hannah Cave discuss their recently published work in which they call for responses in medical policy, law and practice to evidence about how adolescence can affect decision making by young adults
3D rendering of human brain on technology background

Is a ‘Gestateling’ a Fetus or a Newborn? Potential Problems Concerning the Introduction of Artificial Amnion and Placenta Technology

Lauren McCaughey explores issues relating to the introduction of artificial amnion and placenta technology and the legal status of the ‘gestateling’. She introduces her MJur research topic which considers if it would be possible to ‘switch off’ this technology once a fetus has been transferred.
Baby Sleeping

An Investigation into the Medical Management of Intersex Infants: Towards Meaningful Law Reform in the UK

In this blog post, Eleanor Drover introduces her PhD research that explores the medical management of intersex infants in the United Kingdom.
Two surgeons performing surgery

Towards further dialogue between law and science and technology studies

Dr Mark Flear draws on his recently published work in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences (2021) in calling for further law-led engagement with concepts and ideas such as 'Imaginaries' which are used in Science and Technology Studies.
Open law books next to a computer

A New Perspective on British Medical Ethics

Professor Holger Maehle's latest book, A Short History of British Medical Ethics (Ockham Publishing, 2021), challenges established understandings in Bioethics of the traditional ethics of doctors.
Book cover for a short history of British medical ethics

No Jab… No Job? Vaccination Compulsion for Care Home Staff

Clara McNeill offers an initial response to recent Government guidance in favour of a conditional vaccination mandate for staff working in older adult care homes in England. She discusses the reasons behind the mandate and how the protocol will impact staff and residents, and how it can be ethically defended.