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

• Bioethics
• Feminist Legal Studies
• Healthcare Law
• Reproduction

Authored book

• Parsons, J. A., & Romanis, E. C. (2021). Early Medical Abortion, Equality of Access, and the Telemedical Imperative. Oxford University Press

Chapter in book

• Horn, C., & Romanis, E. C. (2020). Establishing Boundaries for Speculation About Artificial Wombs, Ectogenesis, Gender, and the Gestating Body. In C. Dietz, M. Travis, & M. Thomson (Eds.), A Jurisprudence of the Body (227-254). Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42200-4_10

Journal Article

• Romanis, E. C., & Parsons, J. A. (in press). Early telemedical abortion, safeguarding, and under 18s: a qualitative study with care providers in England and Wales. BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsrh-2022-201762
• Romanis, E. C. (in press). Artificial womb technology and clinical translation: Innovative treatment or medical research?. Bioethics, 34(4), 392-402. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12701
• Romanis, E. C. (2023). The Ethical and Legal Status of ‘Fetonates’ Or ‘Gestatelings’. The American Journal of Bioethics, 23(5), https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2023.2191030
• Romanis, E. C. (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, 23(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/09685332231154562
• Mahmoud, Z., & Romanis, E. C. (2023). On Gestation and Motherhood. Medical Law Review, 31(1), 109-140. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwac030
• Johnson, T., & Romanis, E. C. (2023). The relationship between speculation and translation in Bioethics: methods and methodologies. Monash Bioethics Review, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-023-00181-z
• Parsons, J. A., Johal, H., Parker, J., & Romanis, E. C. (2023). Translational or translationable? A call for ethno-immersion in (empirical) bioethics research. Bioethics, https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13184
• Halliday, S., Romanis, E. C., De Proost, L., & Verweij, E. (. (2023). The (mis)use of fetal viability as the determinant of non-criminal abortion in the Netherlands and England and Wales. Medical Law Review, https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwad015
• Romanis, E. C. (2023). R v Foster: Exemplifying the urgency of the decriminalisation of abortion. Medical Law Review, https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwad026
• Romanis, E. C. (2023). Equality-enhancing potential of novel forms of assisted gestation: Perspectives of reproductive rights advocates. Bioethics, 37(7), 637-646. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13187
• Romanis, C., & Mullock, A. (2023). Cryopreservation and current legal problems: seeking and selling immortality. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 10(2), Article lsad028. https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsad028
• Romanis, E. C. (2023). Abortion Access and the Benefits and Limitations of Abortion-Permissive Legal Frameworks: Lessons from the United Kingdom. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 32(3), 378-390. https://doi.org/10.1017/s096318012200086x
• Romanis, C. (2023). ‘The law is very, very outdated and not keeping up with the technology’: novel forms of assisted gestation, legal challenges, and perspectives of reproductive rights advocates in England and Wales. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 10(2), Article lsad027. https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsad027
• Romanis, E. C., & Parsons, J. A. (2022). Directed and Conditional Uterus Donation. Journal of Medical Ethics, 48(11), 810-815. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107902
• Romanis, E. C. (2022). Assisted Gestative Technologies. Journal of Medical Ethics, 48(7), 439-446. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107769
• Parsons, J. A., & Romanis, E. C. (2022). The case for telemedical early medical abortion in England: dispelling adult safeguarding concerns. Health Care Analysis, 30(1), 73-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-021-00439-9
• Romanis, E. C., Mullock, A., & Parsons, J. A. (2022). The Excessive Regulation of Early Abortion Medication in the United Kingdom: The Case for Reform. Medical Law Review, 30(1), 4-32. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwab042
• Hooton, V., & Romanis, E. C. (2022). Artificial Womb Technology, Pregnancy and EU Employment Rights. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 9(1), Article 009. https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsac009
• Romanis, E. C. (2022). Appropriately framing maternal request caesarean section. Journal of Medical Ethics, https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107806
• Segers, S., & Romanis, E. C. (2022). Ethical, Translational, and Legal Issues Surrounding the Novel Adoption of Ectogestative Technologies. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 15, 2207-2220. https://doi.org/10.2147/rmhp.s358553
• Romanis, E. C., Parsons, J. A., Salter, I., & Hampton, T. (2021). Safeguarding and Teleconsultation for Abortion. The Lancet, 398(10299), 555-558. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736%2821%2901062-x
• Romanis, E. C. (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), https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsab011
• Nelson, A., & Romanis, E. C. (2021). The Medicalisation of Childbirth and Access to Homebirth in the UK: COVID-19 and Beyond. Medical Law Review, 29(4), 661-687. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwab040
• Mullock, A., Romanis, E. C., & Begović, D. (2021). Surrogacy and uterus transplantation using live donors: Examining the options from the perspective of ‘womb‐givers’. Bioethics, https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12921
• Parsons, J. A., & Romanis, E. C. (2021). 2020 developments in the provision of early medical abortion by telemedicine in the UK. Health Policy, 125(1), 17-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.11.006
• Begovic, D., Romanis, E. C., & Joanne Verweij, E. (2021). Twin pregnancy reduction is not an ‘all or nothing’ problem: a response to Räsänen. Journal of Medical Ethics, https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107363
• Romanis, E. C., & Parsons, J. A. (2020). Legal and policy responses to the delivery of abortion care during COVID‐19. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 151(3), 479-486. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.13377
• Romanis, E. C., & Nelson, A. (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. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2020-106526
• Romanis, E. C. (2020). Challenging the ‘Born Alive’ Threshold: Fetal Surgery, Artificial Wombs, and the English Approach to Legal Personhood. Medical Law Review, 28(1), 93-123. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwz014
• Romanis, E. C., Begović, D., Brazier, M. R., & Mullock, A. K. (2020). Reviewing the womb. Journal of Medical Ethics, medethics-2020-106160. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2020-106160
• Romanis, E. C., Parsons, J. A., & Hodson, N. (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), https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsaa027
• Romanis, E. C. (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. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwz037
• Romanis, E. C., & Nelson, A. (2020). Homebirthing in the United Kingdom during COVID-19. Medical Law International, https://doi.org/10.1177/0968533220955224
• Romanis, E. C., & Horn, C. (2020). Artificial Wombs and the Ectogenesis Conversation: A Misplaced Focus? Technology, Abortion, and Reproductive Freedom. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, 13(2), 174-194. https://doi.org/10.3138/ijfab.13.2.18
• Romanis, E. C. (2020). Partial ectogenesis: freedom, equality and political perspective. Journal of Medical Ethics, 46(2), https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2019-105968
• Romanis, E. C. (2020). Is ‘viability’ viable? Abortion, conceptual confusion and the law in England and Wales and the United States. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsaa059
• Romanis, E. C. (2020). Sally Sheldon and Kaye Wellings (eds), Decriminalising Abortion in the UK: What Would It Mean?. Medical Law Review, https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwaa033
• Romanis, E. C. (2020). Addressing Rising Cesarean Rates: Maternal Request Cesareans, Defensive Practice, and the Power of Choice in Childbirth. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, 13(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.3138/ijfab.13.1.01
• Romanis, E. C. (2019). Artificial womb technology and the significance of birth: why gestatelings are not newborns (or fetuses). Journal of Medical Ethics, 45(11), 728-729. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2019-105723
• Romanis, E. C. (2019). Why the Elective Caesarean Lottery is Ethically Impermissible. Health Care Analysis, 27(4), 249-268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-019-00370-0
• Romanis, E. C. (2018). Artificial womb technology and the frontiers of human reproduction: conceptual differences and potential implications. Journal of Medical Ethics, 44(11), 751-755. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2018-104910
• Romanis, E. C. (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