Professor Muireann Quigley

Professor Muireann Quigley

Birmingham Law School
Professor of Law, Medicine, and Technology

Contact details

Address
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Quigley has an interdisciplinary background which crosses medicine, ethics, and law. This is reflected in her research which focuses on the philosophical analysis of law and policy in medicine and the biosciences. Her research focuses on bodies, biomaterials and biotechnologies. She has received funding from a number of bodies for her work, including from the Leverhulme and Wellcome Trusts.

Her current main research focus is on the legal and philosophical challenges arising from the joining of persons and bodies with attached and implanted medical devices. These are being investigated as part of a large Wellcome Trust Investigator Award which started in September 2019. Her other research focus is on the legal, regulatory, and other challenges relating to the therapeutic use of psychedelics (e.g. psilocybin and MDMA). Along with Dr Matt Hayler, she is looking at the shifting landscapes in respect of these substances, and examining the hurdles involved in bringing them to market for therapeutic use in Europe (including the UK).

Professor Quigley is author of a recent major monograph examining how the law ought to deal with novel challenges regarding the use and control of human biomaterials. Self-ownership, Property Rights, & the Human Body: A Legal and Philosophical Analysis was originally published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Drawing together often disparate strands of property discourse, it offers an original interdisciplinary defence of the position that persons ought to be seen as the prima facie holders of property rights in their separated biomaterials.

Qualifications

  • BSc (Medical Science) (St Andrews)
  • BSc (Hons) (Manchester)
  • MB ChB (Manchester)
  • MA (Manchester)
  • PhD (Manchester)

Biography

Professor Quigley joined Birmingham Law School in January 2018 as Professor of Law, Medicine, and Technology. From August 2015 she held the Chair in Law, Innovation, and Society the University of Newcastle. Prior to that was Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Ethics and Law at the Centre for Ethics in Medicine at the University of Bristol, and has worked at the University of Manchester's Centre for Social Ethics and Policy in the School of Law where she held positions as Lecturer in Bioethics and Research Fellow in Bioethics and Law. In a previous life she was a medical doctor, working in General Medicine and A&E, and also as a Screening Physician for a phase I clinical trials company.

She serves on the editorial boards for the journals Medical Law International, the Journal of Medical Ethics, and Law, Technology, and Humans. She is a member of the Wellcome Trust's Early Career Advisory Group. In 2023, Professor Quigley was appointed to the Interim Devices Working Group, which provides independent, external expert input and advice relating to medical devices to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Postgraduate supervision

Biolaw, property in the body and biomaterials, the use of the behavioural sciences in law and policy, (bio)technologies and law.


Find out more - our PhD Law  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Professor Quigley’s research focuses on bodies, biomaterials and biotechnologies. All three areas are underpinned by an interest in the foundations of and boundaries in law. This feeds into her current research which focused on the legal and ethical challenges regarding persons with attached and implanted medical devices. She is PI on a large Wellcome Trust-funded project: Everyday Cyborgs 2.0: Law’s Boundary-work and Alternative Legal Futures. This project explores the legal and philosophical challenges which arise when attached and implanted medical devices, especially smart devices, are joined with persons.  

As well as these areas, along with Dr Matt Hayler, Professor Quigley is researching the legal, regulatory, and other challenges relating to the therapeutic use of psychedelics (e.g. psilocybin and MDMA). They are looking at the shifting landscapes in respect of these substances, and examining the hurdles involved in bringing these substances to market for therapeutic use in Europe (including the UK).

Professor Quigley's monograph Self-ownership, Property Rights, & the Human Body: A Legal and Philosophical Analysis was published in hardback in 2018 and paperback in 2020 by Cambridge University Press. In it she examines how the law ought to deal with novel challenges regarding the use and control of human biomaterials, arguing that innovation within the law is needed if we are to adequately deal with and regulate the uses of these. She concludes that the law must confront and move boundaries which it has constructed; in particular, those which delineate property from non-property in relation to biomaterials. The book was one of the 2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title winners.

Other activities

Current:

  • Journal of Medical Ethics, Editorial Board Member (2018- )
  • Medical Law International, Editorial Board Member (2017- )

Previous:

  • Journal of Medical Ethics, Associate Editor (2013-2016)
  • UK Donation Ethics Committee, Member (2012-2016)
  • University of Bristol, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Research Ethics Committee, Chair and Faculty Research Ethics Officer (2014-2015)
  • Medical Research Council Reference Group, Member (2013-2014)
  • North West e-Health Research Governance Committee, Vice-chair (2009 - 2013).

Publications

Highlight publications

Roberts, J, Moore, V & Quigley, M 2021, 'Prescribing unapproved medical devices? The case of DIY artificial pancreas systems', Medical law international, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 42-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0968533221997510

Dickson, R, Bell, J, Dar, A, Downey, L, Quigley, M & Moore, V 2021, '#WeAreNotWaiting: DIY artificial pancreas systems and challenges for the law', Diabetic Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.14715

Quigley, M, McHale, J, Dickson, R & Downey, L 2020, Medicines and Medical Devices Bill 2019-20 Briefing Note. University of Birmingham. <https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/law/news/UoB-Briefing-Feb2020-MMDB-Quigley-et-al.pdf>

Quigley, M 2018, Self-ownership, property rights, and the human body: a legal and philosophical analysis. Cambridge Bioethics and Law, Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139568326

Quigley, M & Ayihongbe, S 2018, 'Everyday cyborgs: on integrated persons and integrated goods', Medical Law Review, vol. 26, no. 2, Spring 2018, pp. 276–308. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwy003

Recent publications

Article

Downey, L, O'Donnell, S, Melvin, T & Quigley, M 2023, 'A European regulatory pathway for Tidepool loop following clearance in the United States?', Diabetic Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.15246

Quigley, M, Downey, L, Mahmoud, Z & McHale, J 2023, 'The Shape of Medical Devices Regulation in the United Kingdom? Brexit and Beyond', Law, Technology and Humans, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 21-42. <https://lthj.qut.edu.au/article/view/3102>

Quigley, M & MacKay, K 2018, 'Exacerbating inequalities? health policy and the behavioural sciences', Health Care Analysis, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 380-397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-018-0357-y

Chapter

Quigley, M, Harris, J & Roberts, J 2024, Personal or Public Health? in M Boylan (ed.), International Public Health Policy and Ethics. 2 edn, The International Library of Bioethics, vol. 106, Springer, Cham, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 31-46. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39973-2_3

Roberts, J & Quigley, M 2022, Being novel? Regulating emerging technologies under conditions of uncertainty. in D Lawrence & S Morley (eds), Novel Beings: Regulatory Approaches for a Future of New Intelligent Life. Elgar Law, Technology and Society series, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 139-169. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800889262.00014

Quigley, M & Downey, L 2022, Integrating the Biological and the Technological: Time to Move Beyond Law’s Binaries? in E Dove & N Nic Shuibhne (eds), Law and Legacy in Medical Jurisprudence: Essays in Honour of Graeme Laurie. Cambridge University Press, pp. 279-306. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108903295.015

Quigley, M & Farrell, A-M 2019, The politics of nudge and framing behaviour change in health. in H Straßheim & S Beck (eds), Handbook of behavioural change and public policy. Handbooks of Research on Public Policy series, Edward Elgar. <https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-behavioural-change-and-public-policy-9781785367847.html>

Quigley, M 2018, Libertarian paternalism and nudging: on alluring concepts and public policy. in K Grill & J Hanna (eds), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Paternalism. 1 edn, Routledge Handbooks in Applied Ethics, Routledge, pp. 223-235.

Comment/debate

Downey, L, Dickson, R, Quigley, M & McHale, J 2020, 'Attracting Investment and Protecting Patients with Smart Regulation', Reformer Thoughts.

Editorial

Quigley, M, Downey, L & Roberts, J 2023, 'Regulatory Futures and Medical Devices: Where Next for Europe and the United Kingdom?', Law, Technology and Humans, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.3174.

Other contribution

Downey, L, Quigley, M, O'Donnell, S & Melvin, T 2023, Open Source Automated Insulin Delivery: Potential Pathways to Regulatory Approval.. <https://blog.bham.ac.uk/everydaycyborgs/wp-content/uploads/sites/95/2023/12/OS-AID-Pathways-Approval-V4.pdf>

Downey, L, Dickson, R & Quigley, M 2021, Responses to the Law Commission’s 14th Programme of Law Reform Consultation.. <https://blog.bham.ac.uk/everydaycyborgs/wp-content/uploads/sites/95/2024/01/Responses-to-the-Law-Commission-16.08.23-FORMATTED.pdf>

Downey, L, Dickson, R, Roberts, J, Quigley, M & McHale, J 2021, Responses to the MHRA Consultation on the Future Regulation of Medical Devices in the UK.. <https://blog.bham.ac.uk/everydaycyborgs/wp-content/uploads/sites/95/2022/04/MHRA-Consultation-QA-24.01.22-website-version.pdf>

Quigley, M, McHale, J, Dickson, R & Downey, L 2020, Memorandum submitted to the House of Lords Delegated Powers Committee..

Quigley, M, McHale, J, Dickson, R & Downey, L 2020, Written Evidence Submitted to the Medicines and Medical Devices Public Bill Committee.. <https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmpublic/Medicinesandmedical/memo/MMDB13.pdf>

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Medical devices law, regulation and policy