About
Research
Biography
Jordan is an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and oversees both the Medicine and Society and Student Selected Components elements of the MBBS programme.
Having worked in both medical schools and law schools, Jordan has broad teaching expertise. Whilst primarily centred on health law, this experience spans tort law, criminal law, family law, law and new technologies, moral and political philosophy, medical sociology, medical education, professional communication, public policy, and qualitative research methods. His expertise was recognised in 2024 with Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).
Outside of St. Mary’s, Jordan has delivered guest lectures at various other institutions, including the University of Oxford and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. He also provides specialist training in law and ethics to healthcare professionals, including leading the successful Mental Capacity and Best Interests in Kidney Care Training Workshop.
Jordan has contributed to a range of (inter)national educational initiatives. He recently contributed to the textbook Diverse Voices in Health Law (Bristol University Press), critically examining the way confidentiality is ordinarily framed. In the field of kidney care, he was part of the International Society of Nephrology's Dialysis Toolkit Working Group and now sits on the Society's Ethics Education Working Group. Jordan is also currently under contract to author a textbook on Dental Ethics & Law (Springer Nature) and edit the Routledge Handbook of Empirical Bioethics (Routledge). Maintaining an interest in medical education, Jordan is currently leading a national project to explore the use of digital educational resources in supporting ethics and law education in medical schools (funded by the Institute of Medical Ethics).
Before joining St. Mary’s, Jordan worked at Royal Holloway University of London, the University of Birmingham, Keele University, and the University of Bristol. He has also held visiting positions at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), Cardiff University (UK), the Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation (Pakistan), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), and The Hastings Center (US).
Research
Research profile
Jordan’s expertise is in health law, ethics, and policy, spanning a range of interests, including:
- Organ donation and transplantation
- Nephrology
- Abortion care
- Telemedicine
- Mental capacity
- Empirical bioethics
- Translational bioethics
- Devolution and policy transfer
- Crown Dependencies health policy
- Medical (ethics and law) education
His current work focuses on the development of health law and policy in the Crown Dependencies, in collaboration with Prof Alex Mullock at the University of Manchester.
Jordan's research has been published in a range of leading journals across several fields, including Medical Law Review, Journal of Medical Ethics, Health Care Analysis, Social Science & Medicine, and The Lancet. This work has been generously supported by funding from a range of sources, including the Institute of Medical Ethics, Kidney Research UK, Wellcome Trust, British Academy, and Society for Applied Philosophy.
His most recent book - 'Opt Out' Organ Donation: An Ethico-Legal Policy Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2025) - provides a comprehensive examination of the move to so-called 'opt out' organ donation across the UK.
Contributing to the wider research community, Jordan serves on several committees and groups. These roles include Chair of the UK Kidney Association's Ethics and Law Committee and Member of the Institute of Medical Ethics' Grants and Awards Committee.
Qualifications
- 2024: SFHEA (Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), Advance HE
- 2023: PhD Healthcare Ethics and Law, University of Bristol
- 2021: FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), Advance HE
- 2020: AFHEA (Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), Advance HE
- 2019: MScR Healthcare Ethics and Law, University of Bristol
- 2017: BA(Hons) Politics, Durham University
Books
- Parsons JA. 2027 (forthcoming). Dental Ethics and Law. Springer Nature.
- Parsons JA. 2025. ‘Opt Out’ Organ Donation: An Ethico-Legal Policy Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Parsons JA, Romanis EC. 2021. Early Medical Abortion, Equality of Access, and the Telemedical Imperative. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edited collections
- Bhatia N, Parsons JA (eds.). 2027 (forthcoming). Research Handbook on Organ Donation, Transplantation, and the Law. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
- Ives J, Dunn M, Frith L, Huxtable R, Morley G, Parsons JA (eds.). 2027 (forthcoming). The Routledge Handbook of Empirical Bioethics. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Parsons JA, Cairns P, Ives J. 2024. Translational bioethics. Bioethics 38(3):173-176.
Journal articles
- Parsons JA, Mullock A. 2026 (in production). Abortion law in the Crown Dependencies: liberalisation in the UK’s small, independent neighbours. Medical Law Review.
- Parsons JA, Cisneros A. 2026. Blurring Clinical and Best Interests Decisions: Townsend v Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. Modern Law Review. Doi:10.1111/1468-2230.70052
- Parsons JA, Ives J. 2026 (online first). Rotten medical compromise and the instrumentalisation of P: findings from a qualitative study of best interests decision making in adult kidney care in England. Legal Studies. doi:10.1017/lst.2026.10118
- Parsons JA, Ives J, Caskey FJ. 2025. “You can’t put your luck on people”: a qualitative study of family views on the best interests decision-making process concerning adult kidney care in England. BMC Nephrology 26, 220.
- Parsons JA, Hayes T. 2025. Mental capacity and ‘opt out’ for organ donation: principles presumptions? Medical Law International 25(3):192-220.
- Parsons JA. 2025. Should we relax abortion reporting requirements in Great Britain? Health Care Analysis 33:121-138.
- Parsons JA, Romanis EC. 2024. “All hands on deck”: a qualitative study of safeguarding and the transition to telemedical abortion care in England and Wales. Social Science & Medicine 348:116835.
- Parsons JA. 2024. Breaking down organ donation borders: revisiting “opt out” residency requirements in the UK. Clinical Ethics 19(3):237-242.
- Parsons JA. 2024. Introducing “opt out” organ donation in Switzerland: lessons from the UK experience. Swiss Medical Weekly 154(3):3572.
- Parsons JA, Johal HK, Parker J, Romanis EC. 2024. Translational or translationable? A call for a complementary ethno-immersive approach in (empirical) bioethics research. Bioethics 38(3):252-261.