Professor Suzanne Ost

Professor

Research Overview

Suzanne's main research interests are: law and bioethics on assisted dying; breaches of the sexual boundaries between doctors and patients and the impact of criminal law on bioethics and health care practice); unknowing victims of crime (BJC2023, IJPSM2023); the legal and societal responses to child abusive images (IRV2018); and the sexual grooming of children and child sexual exploitation. Her most recent book analyses exploitation (conceptually, ethically and legally) in the doctor-patient relationship. Her completed projects include a project on unknowing victims of child abusive images, funded by the British Academy.

Suzanne has advised the Jersey government (Assisted Dying Review Panel) She was the expert adviser for Jersey's Citizens' Jury on Assisted Dying and critical friend to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' Citizens Jury on Assisted Dying.

Career Details

Professor of Law since 2012. Senior Lecturer in Law (September 2007-March 2012). Lecturer in Law at the University of Manchester (2004-2007), and Lecturer in Law at the University of Central Lancashire (2000-2003).

Professional Role

Academic Lead for the North West North Wales (NWNW) Cluster of the British Academy's Early Career Researcher Network.

Formerly Director of Research Enhancement and Associate Dean for Research for the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (2018-2024).

External Roles

External Advisor to the Jersey Assisted Dying Review Panel, reviewing the Jersey draft law on assisted dying, 2025

Member of the Law sub-panel under Panel C, REF2021

Member of the AHRC Peer Review College

Critical Friend for the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' Citizens' Jury on Assisted Dying, 2024

Expert Adviser for Jersey's Citizens' Jury on Assisted Dying, 2021

2011-2020: former Editor in Chief for the Medical Law Review journal

Output assessor for the Law sub-panel under Panel C, REF14

Peer Review Assessor for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, NHS Research for Patient Benefit Programme and the Wellcome Trust

Research Grants

I have been awarded research funding from the AHRC, the British Academy and the Socio-Legal Studies Association.

Current Teaching

2025-2026:

Law300 Health Care Law and Ethics

Law104x Criminal Law

PhD Supervision Interests

Professor Ost is happy to supervise research degrees on medical law and bioethics, legal and social issues surrounding child abusive images and sexual grooming, child sexual exploitation and other areas related to her research interests.