Emma Cave

Emma Cave is a British legal scholar who specialises in health law and the regulation of emerging technologies. She is Professor of Healthcare Law at Durham Law School, Durham University, where she works on the intersection of law, bioethics and health.^[2]

Emma Cave
Born	Emma Gail Gillian Pickworth 1974
Nationality	British
Academic background
Education	Lady Manners School
Alma mater	Newcastle University
Academic work
Discipline	Law
Sub-discipline	Medical law Medical ethics
Notable works	Medicine, Patients and the Law [1]
Website	https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/emma-cave/

Early life and education

Born Emma Pickworth, she attended Lady Manners School, a state secondary school in Bakewell.^[3] She went on to complete an LLB, M.Jur and PhD.

Career

Cave took up a research fellowship at the Centre for Professional Ethics, UCLan in 1998, continuing her PhD part time. She moved to the University of Manchester in 2001 and was given a lectureship at the University of Leeds in 2001. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2008, took up a readership at Durham University in 2013 and became a professor of law in 2016. Cave is a member of Durham CELLS (Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences).^[4]

Advisory roles

Cave has provided expert advice to the UK government, public inquiries and medical professional bodies.

She chaired a Nuffield Council on Bioethics working group on Stem Cell-Based Embryo Models in 2024, reporting on the scientific and ethical issues the new technology raises and setting out governance proposals.^[5][6] Cave chaired the General Medical Council Good Medical Practice Advisory Forum, resulting in new Good Medical Practice guidance in 2024.^[7]

Cave joined the Medical Ethics Committee of the British Medical Association in 2024.^[8] She was a core member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee Expert Panel 2022-23^[9] and from 2024, and a member of the Cass Review Assurance Group 2021-23.^[10] Between 2018 and 2021, she served as a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, where she was Deputy Chair of the Statutory Approvals Committee.^[11] In 2018, she was awarded a part time Scottish Parliament Academic Fellowship.^[12][13]

On public inquiries, Cave was a member of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry ethics advisory group to advise on their 'Every Story Matters' research.^[14][15] And with Professor Bobbie Farsides, she co-convened the Medical Ethics expert group to the UK Infected Blood Inquiry,^[16][17] producing a report^[18] and giving evidence to the Inquiry.^[19]

Media interviews in print, radio and television include the BBC,^[20][21] Lancet,^[22] FullFact^[23] and ITV’s Exposure.^[24]

Publications

With Margaret Brazier, Cave has co-authored Medicine, Patients and the Law, since the 4th edition. Brazier and Cave were joined by Rob Heywood for the 7th edition in 2023.^[1]

In relation to the treatment of young children, she has (with David Archard and Joe Brierley) argued in favour of the best interests test and against arguments for a new threshold of significant harm that would give parents extended decision-making powers.^[25][26][27]