PhD students

Meet some of our doctoral students working towards a PhD or MPhil in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence at CSEP.

Current PhD Researchers

• Oluwatosin Ajibola is a full-time PhD researcher in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence, and her research examines how laws and policies influence maternal health outcomes among recent Black migrant women in England. It explores the legal and structural factors that contribute to maternal health inequities, with the aim of informing more equitable and just approaches to maternal health.
• Kesso Abuladze is a PhD researcher in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence whose research examines the limits of consensual bodily harm, particularly in the contexts of body modification, extreme sports and BDSM practices.
• Ryan Bennett is a PhD researcher whose work explores whether assisted dying legislation can reconcile individual autonomy and safety with legal and ethical certainty. He completed his undergraduate studies at Lancaster University and his postgraduate studies at the University of Manchester.
• Hannah Daniels-Dunleavy is a PhD researcher whose work focuses on consent and autonomy in end-of-life decision-making for individuals with declining decision-making capacity. She holds an MA in Healthcare Ethics and Law from the University of Manchester and a PGCert in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.
• Thomas Donaldson is a practicing consultant anaesthetist and a part-time PhD student, with research interests in the ethics of intensive care decision-making, agency-based virtue ethics, the goals of medicine, and autonomy-based approaches to assisted dying. Tom did his medical training at the University of Cambridge and then an MA in Healthcare Ethics and Law at the University of Manchester. He also chairs the Countess of Chester Hospital clinical ethics committee and is an associated editor of the Sage journal 'Clinical Ethics'.
• Georgette Gavey is a PhD researcher exploring the ethical implications of artificial intelligence in healthcare. They previously trained and worked as a registered nurse before completing a master's degree in Healthcare Law and Ethics.
• Rachel W. Kimani is a PhD researcher in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Manchester, a practicing Nurse Practitioner, and a Clinical Associate Professor of Nursing at Binghamton University, USA. Drawing on care ethics and moral philosophy, her research examines how artificial intelligence reshapes caring relationships, patient identity, and moral responsibility in healthcare.
• Kiloran Metcalf is a part-time PhD researcher and practising paediatric surgeon. Her research examines the legal and ethical foundations of parental rights and parental proxy decision-making for children, with particular attention to looked-after children and the extent to which parents may permissibly make decisions that risk minor harms to their children.
• Alex Peasah-Koduah is a PhD researcher in Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence whose research examines the ethical and legal regulation of surrogacy in Ghana, with particular attention to reproductive autonomy, exploitation, commodification and structural injustice, with the aim of developing a just and context-sensitive ethico-legal framework for surrogacy in Ghana. He is a medical practitioner and healthcare regulator with postgraduate training in public health, clinical leadership and management, and practical ethics.
• Roxanna Pourkarim is a part-time PhD researcher and doctor specialising in palliative medicine. Her research examines the moral status of dying individuals and whether being in the process of dying gives rise to particular rights or responsibilities.