Caroline Jones

• Professor (Associate) at Swansea University

Introduction To understand when knowledge objects in a computable biomedical knowledge library are likely to be subject to regulation as a medical device in the United Kingdom. Methods A briefing paper was circulated to a multi‐disciplinary group of 25 including regulators, lawyers and others with insights into device regulation. A 1‐day workshop...

Artificial intelligence (AI) could transform healthcare provision, possibly improving patient safety and clinician decision-making, and mitigating the effects of staff shortages. However, there are concerns - voiced by regulators and policy-makers - over whether AI and clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) are trusted by relevant stakeholders,...

This article is the fourth in a series introducing the reader to methods and theories relevant to advancing socio‐legal research. They are written for the curious rather than the expert reader and provide illustrations of how the theories, methods, and frameworks have been employed and might be used in your work. This article explores the use of ca...

This article reports on a systematic review of all (19) English language research reports published in peer-reviewed journals up to 2011 exploring donor-conceived people’s experiences and perceptions of donor conception. Most research concerned individuals conceived through sperm donation conducted under a regime promoting anonymity and nondisclosu...

Introduction Every year ~800,000 people die by suicide worldwide. The pathway to suicide is mediated by highly complex processes, integrating a large number of risk factor variables which are extensively dependent on one another. Unfortunately, suicide risk prediction has been a challenging problem for epidemiological studies and their application...

Background: Each year, approximately 800,000 people die by suicide worldwide, accounting for 1-2 in every 100 deaths. It is always a tragic event with a huge impact on family, friends, the community and health professionals. Unfortunately, suicide prevention and the development of risk assessment tools have been hindered by the complexity of the u...

There is an increasing demand for gestational surrogacy in current reproductive medicine practice. Infertile couples often engage overseas surrogates, which increases the risk for legal and ethical complications. This book provides clinical guidance on the provision of gestational surrogacy on a worldwide basis, with brief summaries of the legal po...

This paper outlines the method(s) developed to create ‘biographies’ of pivotal health care law test cases, in order to explore their provenance and impact, and reflects on the implications of what emerges from this biographical approach for understanding the role of judicial rulings in the development of the law. Three leading health care law case...

Judges articulate their role in controversial cases of medical ethics in terms of deference to Parliament, lest their personal morality be improperly brought to bear. This hides a wide range of law-making activities, as parliamentary sovereignty is diffused by ‘intermediate law-makers’, and judicial activity is more subtle than the deference accoun...

In this chapter we examine the conceptualization of vulnerability in particular health care situations and consider how useful it is in a regulatory context. Vulnerability, and potential exploitation, are often used as justifications for the imposition of legal restrictions to protect the rights of those thought to be susceptible to harm. We will u...

This paper considers how clashes of social values in litigation over NHS funding decisions manifest themselves in the ‘biography’ of a case. It argues that the issues in AC v Berkshire West PCT [2010] EWHC 1162 (Admin) and (on appeal) [2011] EWCA Civ 247 can be seen in terms of two competing narratives; one about discrimination and transgender indi...

This paper considers how clashes of social values in litigation over NHS funding decisions manifest themselves in the ‘biography’ of a case. It argues that the issues in AC v Berkshire West PCT [2010] EWHC 1162 (Admin) and (on appeal) [2011] EWCA Civ 247 can be seen in terms of two competing narratives; one about discrimination and transgender indi...

Mitochondrial donation poses the latest regulatory challenge for policy-makers in the context of assisted conception. Since 2010 the Human Genetics Commission, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics have all considered the policy implications of permitting use of these techniques in treatment. The Nuf...

This article reports on a systematic review of English language, peer-reviewed publications from 13 empirical studies with donor-conceived children and adults regarding their experiences and perceptions of donor conception. A total of 19 articles that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. These were identified by means of a bibliographic search...

Mitochondrial donation poses the latest regulatory challenge for policy-makers in the context of assisted conception. In 2012 the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority are consulting on ethical issues raised by this technique; including the potential relationships created by the use of three parties’ gen...

A critical commentary of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's 'Donation Review' launched in January 2011.

Contributing authors were asked to consider three interrelated questions regarding family and responsibility in light of changing family arrangements: ‘When do these relationships become ‘familial’? When is family responsibility acquired? When does that responsibility become legal responsibility?’ In this chapter I address these questions by focusi...

This comment considers the proposals to disband the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) under the auspices of the Government's review of Arm's-Length Bodies in the NHS. The comment highlights some of the difficulties this might raise in relation to the Register of Information held by the HFEA, and urges the need for greater consider...

Initial analysis of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (the 2008 Act), amending the 1990 Act of the same name, points towards the central role of consent provisions in both the construction of legal parenthood and in relation to gaining access to further information about one’s genetic origins. This approach arguably lends support to t...

In 1984, among its recommendations for the regulation of assisted conception services in the UK, the Warnock Committee proposed that the birth certificate of a donor-conceived person should record the fact of donor conception. While this proposal was never implemented, over twenty years later, a Joint Committee of the House of Lords and House of Co...

This chapter analyses the routes by which Parliamentary bodies move from consultation to formulating public policy in the controversial field of assisted conception and related technological developments. It explores the findings of the Department of Health consultation, focusing not only on the official interpretation of the data, but to alternati...

The focus of this chapter is the analysis of the routes by which Parliamentary bodies move from consultation to formulating public policy in the controversial field of assisted conception and related technological developments. How do Parliamentary bodies recommend particular policy stances in controversial areas and are these legitimate? Further,...

In The Status of the Family in Law and Bioethics Roy Gilbar addresses the topical and ethically difficult considerations surrounding the communication of both diagnostic and predictive genetic data to patients' family members. Focusing on the legal and ethical obligations of doctors and their patients, Gilbar analyses two familial tensions: between...

In this article I consider the changing conceptualisation(s) of child welfare, with specific consideration of the value judgements present in Anglo-Welsh legal discourse and policy on/around assisted conception, particularly donor conception, since the inception of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (HFEA 1990). I begin with a brief hi...

This book examines the legal framework and practices surrounding licensed donor insemination in Britain at the end of the twentieth-century, together with a detailed consideration of the legislative and policy based changes in the early years of the twenty-first century. Drawing on interviews with single women, lesbian couples and heterosexual coup...

The Department of Health's Review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 is a comprehensive public consultation on the regulation of the storage and use of gametes and embryos for fertility treatment and research in the UK. The consultation considers a range of issues, including the model and scope of regulation and proposals for a sing...

The focus of this chapter is the significance of the legal ascription of parenthood, in the context of donor insemination, as a mechanism of the social management of family formation. Identifying a particular person as a legal parent, or excluding another from parental status, can clearly both affect and reflect societal attitudes to parenting and...

Under current legal regulations, when undertaking donor insemination at British clinics, women are able to ‘choose’ particular characteristics of donors. It is also permissible to reserve sperm from a particular donor for future use. These provisions have traditionally been associated with facilitating heterosexual couples to ‘pass’ as ‘the family’...