Staff profile

From September 2022-June 2023, Chloe Romanis is on research leave to take up a Fellowship-in-Residence at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics (Harvard Law) at Harvard University. 

Chloe Romanis joined Durham Law School as an Assistant Professor in Biolaw in September 2020. 

Chloe has a first class LLB (Hons) Law degree and a distinction LLM in Health Care Ethics and Law both from the University of Manchester. She passed her Wellcome Trust-funded PhD in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Manchester with no corrections in September 2020. While undertaking her PhD she also studied Reproductive and Sexual Health Law as an International Graduate Student at the University of Toronto, Canada. 

In 2020 Chloe was awarded the University of Manchester Distinguished Achievement Medal for Postgraduate Researcher of the Year (FHUMS) and a Faculty of Humanities Outstanding Teacher Award. In 2021, Chloe was awarded the Durham Law School Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Award.

Chloe welcomes PhD applications from students in any of her areas of expertise - reproduction and the law. 

Research

Chloe does research in healthcare law and bioethics with a particular interest in reproduction and the body (abortion, gestation, pregnancy and birth). Chloe's principal publications concern artificial womb technology and are published in leading journals including the Medical Law Review, Journal of Law and the Biosciences and the Journal of Medical Ethics. Chloe has also published widely on matters related to abortion and childbirth. 

Her first book, co-authored with Jordan A Parsons of the University of Bristol, 'Early Medical Abortion, Equality of Access, and the Telemedical Imperative,' was published by Oxford University Press in September 2021. 

Teaching Areas

• Advanced Issues in Criminal Law 
• Contemporary Issues in Biolaw 
• Contract Law

• Healthcare Law
• Reproduction
• Feminist Legal Studies
• Bioethics

• Durham Centre for Law and Philosophy
• Durham Centre for Law and Philosophy
• Gender & Law at Durham

• Nelson, Anna and Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, 'Birth Rights and COVID-19: The Problem of Unconsented Vaginal Examinations' SLSA Blog (May 2021)
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe and Nelson, Anna, 'Birth Rights and COVID-19: Changing Choices and Increasing Restriction' SLSA Blog (May 2021)
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, ‘Artificial Womb Technology: The Implications of Ectogestation as a Reproductive Choice,’ Bionews (7 September 2020)
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, ‘Artificial wombs and choosing an alternative to gestation,’ Centre for Reproduction Research De Montfort University Blog (6 January 2020)
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, ‘It’s Time to Address the Absence of Choice in Childbirth,’ University of Toronto Press Blog (13 April 2020)
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, ‘We need to talk about the artificial womb,’ Bionews (14 October 2019)
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, ‘Why don’t we just… decriminalise gestation,’ The Big Issue North (30 March 2020)
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, Interview for Guardian Science Weekly Podcast ‘Artificial Wombs and the Promise for Premature Babies’ (1 November 2019)
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, Parsons, Jordan A, & Hampton, Thomas, 'Why changes to abortion laws during the pandemic should remain' (August 2021)

Available for media contact about:

• Ethics: Abortion
• Law & Crime: Abortion
• English Law: Abortion
• Gender and law: Abortion
• Ethics: Reproductive Technologies
• Law & Crime: Reproductive Technologies

Authored book

• Parsons, Jordan A & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2021). Early Medical Abortion, Equality of Access, and the Telemedical Imperative. Oxford University Press.

Chapter in book

• Horn, Claire & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2020). Establishing Boundaries for Speculation About Artificial Wombs, Ectogenesis, Gender, and the Gestating Body. In A Jurisprudence of the Body. Dietz, Chris, Travis, Mitchell & Thomson, Michael Palgrave. 227-254.

Journal Article

• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2023). The Ethical and Legal Status of ‘Fetonates’ Or ‘Gestatelings’. The American Journal of Bioethics 23(5): 90.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2023). The end of (reproductive) liberty as we know it: A note on Dobbs V. Jackson Women’s Health 597 USC __ (2022). Medical Law International
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe & Parsons, Jordan A (2023). Early telemedical abortion, safeguarding, and under 18s: a qualitative study with care providers in England and Wales. BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2023). Abortion Access and the Benefits and Limitations of Abortion-Permissive Legal Frameworks: Lessons from the United Kingdom. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2023). The Equality-Enhancing Potential for Novel Forms of Assisted Gestation: Perspectives of Reproductive Rights Advocates. Bioethics
• Parsons, Jordan A Johal, Harleen Parker, Joshua & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2023). Translational or Translationable? A call for a complementary ethnographic approach in (empirical) bioethics research. Bioethics
• Mahmoud, Zaina & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2023). On Gestation and Motherhood. Medical Law Review 31(1): 109–140.
• Halliday, Samantha, Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, De Proost, Lien & Verweij, E.J. (Joanne) (2023). The (mis)use of fetal viability as the determinant of non-criminal abortion in the Netherlands and England and Wales. Medical Law Review
• Segers, Seppe & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2022). Ethical, Translational, and Legal Issues Surrounding the Novel Adoption of Ectogestative Technologies. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy 15: 2207-2220.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe & Parsons, Jordan A (2022). Directed and Conditional Uterus Donation. Journal of Medical Ethics 48(11): 810-815.
• Hooton, Victoria & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2022). Artificial Womb Technology, Pregnancy and EU Employment Rights. Journal of Law and the Biosciences 9(1): 009.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2022). Assisted Gestative Technologies. Journal of Medical Ethics 48(7): 439-446.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2022). Appropriately framing maternal request caesarean section. Journal of Medical Ethics
• Parsons, Jordan A & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2022). The case for telemedical early medical abortion in England: dispelling adult safeguarding concerns. Health Care Analysis 30(1): 73-96.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, Mullock, Alexandra & Parsons, Jordan A (2022). The Excessive Regulation of Early Abortion Medication in the United Kingdom: The Case for Reform. Medical Law Review 30(1): 4-32.
• Nelson, Anna & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2021). The Medicalisation of Childbirth and Access to Homebirth in the UK: COVID-19 and Beyond. Medical Law Review 29(4): 661-687.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, Parsons, Jordan A, Salter, Isobel & Hampton, Thomas (2021). Safeguarding and Teleconsultation for Abortion. The Lancet 398(10299): 555-558.
• Mullock, Alexandra, Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe & Begović, Dunja (2021). Surrogacy and uterus transplantation using live donors: Examining the options from the perspective of ‘womb‐givers’. Bioethics
• Begovic, Dunja Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe & E Joanne Verweij (2021). Twin pregnancy reduction is not an ‘all or nothing’ problem: a response to Räsänen. Journal of Medical Ethics
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2021). ‘Abortion & "Artificial Wombs": Would ‘artificial womb’ technology legally empower non-gestating genetic progenitors to participate in decisions about how to terminate a pregnancy?'. Journal of Law and the Biosciences 8(1).
• Parsons, Jordan A & Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2021). 2020 developments in the provision of early medical abortion by telemedicine in the UK. Health Policy 125(1): 17-21.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2020). Sally Sheldon and Kaye Wellings (eds), Decriminalising Abortion in the UK: What Would It Mean? Medical Law Review
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2020). Is ‘viability’ viable? Abortion, conceptual confusion and the law in England and Wales and the United States. Journal of Law and the Biosciences
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe & Parsons, Jordan A (2020). Legal and policy responses to the delivery of abortion care during COVID‐19. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 151(3): 479-486.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe & Horn, Claire (2020). Artificial Wombs and the Ectogenesis Conversation: A Misplaced Focus? Technology, Abortion, and Reproductive Freedom. IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 13(2): 174-194.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe & Nelson, Anna (2020). Maternal request caesareans and COVID-19: the virus does not diminish the importance of choice in childbirth. Journal of Medical Ethics 46(11): 726-731.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe & Nelson, Anna (2020). Homebirthing in the United Kingdom during COVID-19. Medical Law International 096853322095522.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, Begović, Dunja, Brazier, Margot R & Mullock, Alexandra Katherine (2020). Reviewing the womb. Journal of Medical Ethics medethics-2020-106160.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe, Parsons, Jordan A & Hodson, Nathan (2020). COVID-19 and reproductive justice in Great Britain and the United States: ensuring access to abortion care during a global pandemic. Journal of Law and the Biosciences 7(1).
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2020). Addressing Rising Cesarean Rates: Maternal Request Cesareans, Defensive Practice, and the Power of Choice in Childbirth. IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 13(1): 1-26.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2020). Partial ectogenesis: freedom, equality and political perspective. Journal of Medical Ethics 46(2): 89.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2020). Artificial Womb Technology and the Choice to Gestate Ex Utero: Is Partial Ectogenesis the Business of the Criminal Law? Medical Law Review 28(2): 342-374.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2020). Artificial womb technology and clinical translation: Innovative treatment or medical research? Bioethics 34(4): 392-402.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2020). Challenging the ‘Born Alive’ Threshold: Fetal Surgery, Artificial Wombs, and the English Approach to Legal Personhood. Medical Law Review 28(1): 93-123.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2019). Artificial womb technology and the significance of birth: why gestatelings are not newborns (or fetuses). Journal of Medical Ethics 45(11): 728-729.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2019). Why the Elective Caesarean Lottery is Ethically Impermissible. Health Care Analysis 27(4): 249-268.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2018). Artificial womb technology and the frontiers of human reproduction: conceptual differences and potential implications. Journal of Medical Ethics 44(11): 751-755.
• Romanis, Elizabeth Chloe (2017). Pregnant women may have moral obligations to foetuses they have chosen to carry to term, but the law should never intervene in a woman’s choices during pregnancy. The Manchester Review of Law, Crime and Ethics 6: 69-85.