Rosamund Scott

Rosamund Scott is dual trained in Philosophy and Law and her research interests centre on reproductive ethics and law, an area in which she has published a wide range of articles and books. She published her first monograph – Rights, Duties and the Body: Law and Ethics of the Maternal-Fetal Conflict – in 2002 (a runner-up for the SLS Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship). Her second – Choosing between Possible Lives: Law and Ethics of Prenatal and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis – was published in 2007, aided by Research Leave from the AHRC.

She has benefitted from extensive involvement in interdisciplinary research with others, funded by the Wellcome Trust. Jointly with Professor Stephen Wilkinson (University of Lancaster), she recently held a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award for a programme of research entitled ‘The Donation and Transfer of Human Reproductive Materials’ (2013-2022). Outputs under this grant have included articles in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (with Stephen Wilkinson) and the Modern Law Review, as well as a jointly edited collection for Cambridge University Press in 2016 (Golombok, S., Scott, R., Appleby, J., Richards, M., and Wilkinson, S. (eds), Regulating Reproductive Donation).  

Her work in the area of regulation, policy advice and engagement includes her role as Chair of the MRC Steering Committee for the UK Stem Cell Bank. She was a member of the Nuffield Council of Bioethics Working Party on ‘Donor Conception: Ethical Aspects of Information Sharing’. Previously, she was a member of the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. She is also a barrister. In 2014 her research was shortlisted for the King's Award 'Research Project of the Year'. 

Teaching

Postgraduate

Rosamund Scott is Professor of Medical Law and Ethics, and Director of the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics. She joined the Centre as a Lecturer, became Reader in Law, and then Professor of Medical Law and Ethics. She became Co-Director of the Centre in 2013, and Director in 2020.

She studied Philosophy at the Australian National University, Canberra, where she was awarded the Quentin Gibson Prize for Philosophy, followed by Law at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. After qualifying as a barrister she undertook a PhD in an area of reproductive law and ethics at King’s College London. She received a number of scholarships and awards during these studies. 

A wide range of ethical, legal and policy issues in reproduction, with a particular emphasis on new reproductive technologies.