Zaina Mahmoud

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Western Ontario, studying medical sciences and psychology. I moved to Exeter to undertake the Graduate LLB degree and undertook a dissertation examining the legal requirement of consideration for contract formation in light of the proposed Directive on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content. Upon completion of this qualifying law degree, I pursued an LLM in Intellectual Property Law, with my dissertation focussing on a comparative legal analysis into European and American morality concerns within the biotechnological patent regimes as related to human germline genetic engineering. I am excited to integrate my academic interests and apply them to my PhD project.

Highlights of my career

I am very excited to have the opportunity to undertake my PhD in such a way that will inform the publics involved in surrogacy from an interdisciplinary perspective and ensure all actors within surrogacy arrangements are protected and empowered.

My research

I will be undertaking an examination of surrogacy regulation in the UK as compared to California, taking into account the experiences of surrogates in both jurisdictions, in the hopes of proposing a legal framework that would be fit for purpose here in the UK. It will include a combination of comparative legal doctrinal research with qualitative empirical research through an exploration of the lived experiences of surrogates and would-be-surrogates.

Something about me you can’t Google!

Cats hate me (but we’ve agreed to negotiate).