Dr Caroline A B Redhead
Dr Caroline A B Redhead Lecturer in Law, Solicitor (non-practising)
Lecturer
My profile
Biography
I am a Lecturer in Law and a solicitor (non-practising). Having worked as a corporate/commercial solicitor for many years, in the UK and in Hong Kong, I moved from private practice to academia in 2020. As a post-doctoral research fellow, I worked at the University of Liverpool on the NHS Reset Ethics research project and at The University of Manchester on the ConnecteDNA research project. I moved to Manchester Law School in November, 2024.
My research interests lie broadly in the dynamic interplay between law, ethics (particularly bioethics) and social change. I am particularly interested in the way legal and ethical frameworks are interpreted and experienced by people in their everyday lives, in decision-making processes and practices, and in exploring socio-legal approaches to legal research, especially in medical law and healthcare regulation. I am also interested in the role of corporates in not-for-profit contexts.
I have a PhD in Palliative Care and an LLM in Child Law. My PhD explored the influence of legal consciousness on the way in which the Mental Capacity Act 2005 is understood by hospice staff making decisions for patients who lack capacity to decide for themselves. My Masters dissertation considered children’s autonomy in making mental- and medical-health treatment decisions.
I am a trustee of St John’s Hospice in Lancaster, and of Van Mildert College JCR (Durham University). I am a member of the Law Society, the Socio-Legal Studies Association and the Society of Legal Scholars.
Impact
Frith, L. and Redhead, C. ConnecteDNA project selected as UoM’s entry for THE Awards 2024, Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Preparing for Contact: (ESRC IAA funded) impact project aiming to prepare past sperm and egg donors for possible contact from their recipient families. Working with colleagues in stakeholder organisations (British Fertility Society, British Infertility Counselling Association, Manchester Fertility, Donor Conceived Register, Donor Conception Network, NHS and others) to co-create resources and a website for this purpose. Shared on HFEA website: https://www.hfea.gov.uk/donation/donors/?conesso_link_tag=6a4c3aa9c&utm_campaign=Clinic+Focus+-+November+2023&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Conesso
Frith, L. and Redhead, C., Commended, University of Manchester Making a Difference Award, 2023 for contributions to health and wellbeing. (NHS Reset Ethics project, When pandemic and everyday ethics collide: supporting ethical decision-making in maternity care and paediatrics during the Covid-19 pandemic).
Royal College of Physicians (Paton, A., Frith, L and Redhead, C) (2022) The NHS ‘road to recovery’: ethical guidance for endemic COVID-19. https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/nhs-road-recovery-ethical-guidance-endemic-covid-19 and Reported in the Independent newspaper (21.7.22).
Redhead, C. et al (2021) Response to the Public Accounts Committee’s Call for Evidence concerning initial lessons from the government’s response to Covid-19 (ILG0009) listed in Gov’t Report (pub. July 2021).
Teaching
I teach on:
- Principles of Constitutional Law
- Critical Approaches (in Foundation subjects)
- Law for Entrepreneurs
- Company Law
- Medical Law
Supervision
I am happy to supervise projects looking at medical law and ethics, healthcare generally, and mental capacity law, or law in a business context. I am particularly interested in projects which consider law and relationality, and in feminist approaches to socio-legal research.
Research outputs
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Redhead, C. et al. Unlocking the promise of UK health data: considering the case for a charitable GP data trust (Medical Law Review, forthcoming)
Redhead, C. and Frith, L. (2024) Donor conception, direct-to-consumer genetic testing, choices and procedural justice: an argument for reform of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (Medical Law Review: https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwae028
Redhead, C. et al (2024) Using symbiotic empirical ethics to explore the significance of relationships to clinical ethics: findings from the Reset Ethics research project. BMC Medical Ethics: https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-024-01053-9
Gilman, L., Redhead, C. et al (2024) Direct-to-consumer genetic testing and the changing landscape of gamete donor conception: key issues for practitioners and stakeholders. Reproductive BioMedicine Online.
Redhead, C. et al (2023)Relationships, Rights and Responsibilities: (Re)viewing the NHS Constitution for the post-vaccination ‘new normal’. Medical Law Review, Volume 31(1) 83–108.
Redhead, C. (2023) From Legislative Intent to Hospice Practice: Exploring the Genealogy of The Mental Capacity Act 2005. Journal of Legal Research Methodology: Vol 2(1) Special Issue Empirical Legal Research 46-74. Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4404918
Lukasiewicz, R., Frith, L. & Redhead, C.(2023) Facial kinship verification and searching for genetic origins in gamete/embryo donor conception: an overview of potential legal and ethical issues.Int J Law, Policy & Fam
Frith, L., Draper, H., Fovargue, S., Baines, P., Redhead, C., & Chiumento, A. (2021) Neither ‘Crisis Light’ nor ‘Business as Usual’: Considering the Distinctive Ethical Issues Raised by the Contingency and Reset Phases of a Pandemic. The American journal of bioethics: AJOB, 21(8), 34-37. Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4039124
Chiumento, A., Baines, P., Redhead, C., Fovargue, S., Draper, H., & Frith, L. (2021). Which ethical values underpin England’s National Health Service reset of paediatric and maternity services following COVID-19: a rapid review. BMJ open, 11(6), e049214. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/6/e049214
BOOK CHAPTERS
Draper, H., Redhead, C. et al.Responding proportionately to the COVID-19 pandemic in UK long-stay, in-patient paediatric wards. In Proportionality in Public Health Crises(OUP, forthcoming).
Redhead, C., Chiumento, A., Fovargue, S., Draper, H. and Frith, L. Relationships were a casualty when pandemic ethics and everyday clinical ethics collided. In Governance, democracy and ethics in crisis-decision-making: The pandemic and beyond (MUP). Eds Redhead, C. and Smallman, M. (May 2024) Available OA: https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526180056
MEDIA/BLOGS
Redhead, C. and Frith, L. (2024) How at-home DNA testing kits let people skirt donor anonymity laws – and why they do it. The Conversation article
Redhead, C. and Frith, L. (2023) ConnecteDNA – the implications of technology on donor conception anonymity. https://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/author/caroline-redhead/
Redhead, C. (2023) The ConnecteDNA project: thinking about law reform and gamete donor anonymity. https://www.progress.org.uk/the-connectedna-project-thinking-about-law-reform-and-gamete-donor-anonymity/
Redhead, C. et al (2022) Eggs and sperm can now be stored for up to 55 years – here’s what that means for donors and people seeking fertility treatment. The Conversation article.
INVITED TALKS
18.9.24 Book launch Governance, democracy and ethics in crisis-decision-making: The Pandemic and beyond, London.
6.7.24 International Infertility Counselling Organisation Symposium 2024, Amsterdam: Direct-to-consumer genetic testing and the changing landscape of gamete donor conception: key issues for practitioners and stakeholders
19.6.24 Shifting Dynamics in Medical Law: New Spaces, Temporalities and Actors. SLS Funded Workshop convened by Bev Clough/Anna Nelson: Total pain and limited time: clinical ethics and the relationality of hospice care
8.11.23: Derby Medical Society meeting: Is it time to ‘Reset’ clinical ethics?
18.10.23: WINIR Workshop: Regulation and the Common Good: Therapeutic jurisprudence, empirical ethics, and re-building (the) Trust
29.9.23: Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists annual Symposium: A socio-legal perspective on experiences of donor conception and direct-to-consumer genetic testing: what is the role of law?
3.7.23: ECHO Collaboration (KCL): Therapeutic jurisprudence, empirical ethics, and re-building (the) Trust
22.9.22: The Royal Society of Medicine policy event (Chair, Nina Khazaezadeh (RSM and NHS England & Improvement): Post-pandemic recovery of maternal and child health service
13.7.22: Guest speaker ‘Bite-sized ethics training’ Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust: Masking emotions and sterilising care: what are the unintended consequences of COVID-19?
6.12.2021: Policy workshop (online event – attendees included Chief Midwifery Officer for NHS England & Improvement): Early insights from new research on maternity services to inform service COVID-19 recovery
Career history
1990
University of Durham BA (Hons) Chinese Studies
1994
Admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court, England and Wales
1996
Admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court, Hong Kong
2008
LLM in Child Law (Northumbria University)
2020
PhD in Palliative Care, Lancaster University
2021
Post-doctoral research Fellow, University of Liverpool
2022
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, The University of Manchester
2024
Lecturer in Law, Manchester Law School
Press and media
Redhead, C. and Frith, L. (2024) How at-home DNA testing kits let people skirt donor anonymity laws – and why they do it. The Conversation article
Redhead, C. and Frith, L. (2023) ConnecteDNA – the implications of technology on donor conception anonymity. https://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/author/caroline-redhead/
Redhead, C. (2023) The ConnecteDNA project: thinking about law reform and gamete donor anonymity. https://www.progress.org.uk/the-connectedna-project-thinking-about-law-reform-and-gamete-donor-anonymity/
Redhead, C. et al (2022) Eggs and sperm can now be stored for up to 55 years – here’s what that means for donors and people seeking fertility treatment. The Conversation article.