Hazel Biggs

Hazel Biggs is Head of the Law School and Professor of Healthcare Law and Bioethics and co-Director of HEAL (the Centre for Health Ethics and Law) at the University of Southampton.

Hazel received her first degree from the University of Kent after working for several years as a radiographer and ultrasonographer in the National Health Service. She was previously Professor of Medical Law at Lancaster University.

Hazel's research focuses on Healthcare Law and Bioethics generally, with particular emphasis on death and dying and end of life decision-making, human reproduction and the beginning of life, and the ethics and law of clinical research. She has published widely on the legal and ethical aspects of each of these areas.

Alongside her university activities Hazel has chaired local and multi-centre NHS Research Ethics Committees (RECs), and recently published a book examining the legal and ethical responsibilities of RECs (Healthcare Research Ethics and Law, Routledge: 2010). She has been involved with education and training for members of research ethics committees and the medical research community for many years.

Hazel was a member of the GMC working group which formulated the guidance Treatment and Care Towards the End of Life: good practice in decision-making in 2010. She is currently Editor in Chief of Medical Law Review, a member of the editorial board of Research Ethics Review, ethics advisor to the Wales Cancer Bank and a Senior Associate of the Royal Society of Medicine.