Tripos Seminar: Law and Ethics of Medicine

Professor Kathy Liddell & Professor Jeffrey Skopek

This research seminar allows Part II students to write a dissertation on a question at the intersection of law, medicine and the life sciences. The scope of potential dissertation topics is broad, including (but not limited to) emerging medical technologies, issues at the beginning and end of life, medical treatment, public health, and medical research and innovation.  

Examples of previous dissertations:

Clinical Treatment

‘Unlimited capacity for altruism: Should altruism be considered to be in the best interests of a mentally incapacitated individual?’ (2025).

‘Should culpability for illness affect treatment, and should patients be Deprioritised for self-inflicted illnesses?’ (2024).

‘In two minds about it: The role of parents and parental consent in the prescription of puberty blockers to Gillick-competent transgender adolescents’ (2023).

Reproduction, Abortion & Beginning of Life

‘Personhood Politics:  Exploring A Right To IVF In Post-Dobbs America’ (2024).

“Should prospective parents be able to use pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to select the sex of embryos to decrease the probability that their child will suffer from Autistic Spectrum Disorder?” (2020).

End-of-life

‘The imperative for physician-initiated MAiD discussions outside the end-of-life context in Canada: a reconciliation of this requirement with failing and lacking safeguards within the legal framework’ (2024).

‘“Should a different approach be permitted for people who do not recognise brainstem death as death for religious reasons?”: The case for allowing greater cultural sensitivity in the UK’s approach to legal determination of death’ (2023).

Medical Research and Emerging Technologies

‘“How Did You Know That?”: Reviewing the Legal Status of Inferred Data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)’ (2024).

‘Rethinking Liability for the Use of AI-powered Clinical Decision Support Systems: A Legal and Ethical Exploration’ (2023).

NHS Organisation and Public Health

‘“Save lives, protect the NHS”: To what extent could a public interest consideration in favour of protecting the nhs from unsustainable negligence liability feature in judicial reasoning?’ (2025).

‘Should and can law in the United Kingdom play a greater role in reducing ethnic inequalities in healthcare?’ (2024).

Other Controversies

‘Is it fair that naturally occurring XY chromosomes in athletes with ‘Differences in Sex Development’ are subject to regulation in female elite sport when other naturally occurring genetic variations are not?’ (2025).

‘Surgical Procedures That Enhance Performance Are Not Currently Prohibited By The Wada Code. Exploring The Surgical Loophole And The Ramifications Of Surgical Doping’ (2024).