Dr Nataly Papadopoulou

I joined Leicester Law School in September 2020.

I hold an LLB (2012) and a PhD (2018) from the University of Leicester, and an LLM in Human Rights Law (2013) from Queen Mary University of London.

I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2019.

My research interests lie in medical law and ethics, especially as it interacts with human rights law at the end-of-life.

I am interested in end-of-life law and policy, and specifically euthanasia and assisted suicide. My work focuses on two key questions: by what means law reform is achieved in different jurisdictions, and what form the law should take in striking the right balance between competing interests. My work has been published in leading journals including: the Medical Law Review, the Journal of Medical Law and Ethics, and European Human Rights Law Review. I adopt a doctrinal, critical, and comparative approach to my research.

I have close links with leading charity and campaign organisations, including Dignity in Dying, My Death My Decision, LOROS. I am interested in policy-making, law reform, and healthcare practice in the area of end-of-life, and keen to contribute, through my work, to a more open discussion of how we speak about death and dying as a society.

Books

Liz Wicks and Nataly Papadopoulou, Research Handbook on Human Rights Law and Health (Research Handbooks in Human Rights, Elgar Publishing – forthcoming 2025). 

Book Chapters

Nataly Papadopoulou and Cedric Gilson, ‘Political Environments of Assisted Dying’ in Liz Wicks and Nataly Papadopoulou, Research Handbook on Human Rights Law and Health (forthcoming Elgar, 2025).

Journal Articles

Nataly Papadopoulou, Himanshu Kaul, Mukund Janardhanan et al., 'Tackling barriers to digitisation, low response rates and poor -quality feedback in hospice settings via LeicSurvey: A digital survey tool for hospices' (forthcoming, 2024).

Nataly Papadopoulou and Chrystalla Fakonti, ‘Reflecting on access to assisted dying services amidst the COVID-19 pandemic’ (forthcoming, 2024). 

Clark Hobson and Nataly Papadopoulou, ‘Regulating Risk and Autonomy in Assisted Suicide: Conway v Secretary of State for Justice’ (2020) Medical Law Review 1-15.

Nataly Papadopoulou, ‘Losing our Grip on Death: What now for Assisted Dying in the UK?’ (2017) 5 Journal of Medical Law and Ethics 1, 57-79.

Nataly Papadopoulou, 'From Pretty to Nicklinson: Changing Judicial Attitudes to Assisted Dying' (2017) 3 European Human Rights Law Review, 298-307 (cited by the European Parliament and EPRS for selected readings on: 'Assisted Dying in the EU and Beyond').

Reports

Nataly Papadopoulou, Clark Hobson, Liz Wicks, Written expert submission to the Health and Social Care Select Committee - inquiry into assisted dying/assisted suicide (2022-2023 available here: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/81/health-and-social-care-committee/publications/written-evidence/).

Nataly Papadopoulou, Clark Hobson, Liz Wicks, Written expert submission to the Scottish Parliament re ‘a proposal for a Bill to enable competent adults who are terminally ill to be provided at their request with assistance to end their life’ (December 2021 - available on request).

Nataly Papadopoulou, Written submission for the Law Commission’s 14th Programme of law reform (July 2021 - available on request).

Dzehtsiarou, Falcetta, Giannoulopoulos, Johnson, Expert Submission to the Independent Human Rights Act Review (contributor, March 2021 – available on request).

Nataly Papadopoulou, Written submission to the Committee on Justice on the An Bille um Bás Dínitiúil, 2020/ Dying with Dignity Bill 2020 (January 2021 - available on request).

Book reviews/other:

Maribel Canto-Lopez, Arwen Joyce, and Nataly Papadopoulou, ‘Legal Skills for Citizens of Change Conference at University of Leicester explores legal skills from multiple perspectives' (2023) Association of Law Teachers Blog, available at http://lawteacher.ac.uk/alt-blog-2/.

Sue Westwood, Death Rights: Regulating the End of Life Medical Law Review (2023) 1-7 10.1093/medlaw/fwad011 – book review.

Ben P. White and Lindy Wilmott, International Perspectives on End-of-Life Law Reform: Politics, Persuasion and Persistence Bioethics (2022) https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13090 – book review.

David Albert Jones, Chris Gastmans, and Calum Mackellar, Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Lessons from Belgium 27 Medical Law Review 1 (2019) 180-187 -book review.

Nataly Papadopoulou, ‘Re: Canada’s new assisted dying law faces legal challenge’ BMJ 2016; 354 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i3688 (Published 01 July 2016) (Response, 31 January 2017) (British Medical Journal (BMJ) response).

I am happy to supervise UG, LLM, and PhD students in matters relating to: Medical Law, Human Rights, End of life, Assisted suicide, Euthanasia, Death and dying.

I currently supervise three PGR students:

1. Lydia Kitchen FT centenary scholarship (2022-2026) on the topic of 'Human Rights Law and the Provision of Health Care: Rationing Decisions During a Pandemic' (with Prof Liz Wicks and Dr Louise Austin)

3. Alissa Pham PT (2018-2024) on the topic of 'Building legal culture competency in Public Legal Education: A case study on activities for Law School students in aiding the public' (with Laura Bee, and Dr Ed Bates)

Undergraduate:

LW3220 Criminal Law (tutorials)

LW3260 Medical Law (tutorials and lectures)

LW1150 Law of Tort (tutorials)

I am happy to be contacted about anything related to assisted suicide and euthanasia, and any relevant human rights issues with a particular focus on law and policy reform in the UK and other jurisdictions (including Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Oregon).

Member (academic organisations):

The Association of Law Teachers

Socio-Legal Studies Association

Society of Legal Scholars

Member (charity and campaign organisations):

Dignity in Dying and Compassion in Dying

My Death My Decision

Dying Matters

University key activities and responsibilities:

Street Law academic coordinator

College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities ECR Action Group co-chair

Leicester University and College Union (UCU) branch secretary

MRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) £15,000

Himanshu Kaul (PI - Engineering), Mukund Janardhanan (Engineering), Nataly Papadopoulou (Law)

Creating and promoting 'LeicSurvey': A digital survey tool for hospice care (June 2023 - June 2024)

Institute for Precision Health - University and University Hospitals of Leicester £3,000

Winifred Ekezie (Population Health Sciences), Mayuri Gogoi (Respiratory Sciences), Nataly Papadopoulou (Law), Farah Badakshi (Respiratory Sciences), Karen Bowman (LD3 Research Team)

Community interventions for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) management in Europe (November 2022 - July 2023)

CCEF - Centenary Community Engagement Fund Project £10,000

Himanshu Kaul (PI - Engineering), Mukund Janardhanan (Engineering), Nataly Papadopoulou (Law), Genovefa Kefalidou (Computing and Mathematical Sciences) and LOROS partners

Enhancing user services for potential improvements to critical end of live care (August 2022 - May 2023)

Academic activities relevant to CSSAH ECR Action Group March to July 2022.

University of Huddersfield, research travel grant £2,500

25th World Congress of Medical Law in Tokyo, Japan August 2019.

University of Leicester

Shortlisted for Outstanding Contribution to Postgraduate Life Award May 2017.

Selected conferences:

Legal Skills for Citizens of Change, 'Legal Technology for Students and Academics' (with K Georgiadis) (invited speaker/co-organiser - December 2022)

The Human Rights Act After 22 Years: Evolution, Impact, Future Directions, '22 years on – the HRA and its impact (and non-impact) on assisted dying' (invited speaker - November 2022)

Expert seminar on 'cross-border access to end-of-life service in Europe' (invited speaker - June 2022 - Leuven, Belgium).

The IV. International Medical Law Congress - Istanbul Medeniyet University Medical Law Research Center and Ankara Medipol University (invited member of the academic committee - November 2021 - virtual).

14th Programme of Law Reform - Law Commission: “speed” law reform presentation on ‘decriminalising assisted suicide’ (presenter - April 2021 - virtual).

‘Dying with Assistance: The Role of Evidence The Power of a Declaration the Call for an Inquiry’ SLSA Annual Conference - University of Cardiff (presenter - March 2021 - virtual).

‘Panel discussion on Assisted Dying reform’ Big Voice London Model Law Commission, University of Law (invited speaker - October 2019 - London).

‘Article 2 ECHR: A breach of the rights of those wanting to die?’ World Association for Medical Law (WAML) 2019 Congress - Waseda University (presenter - August 2019 - Tokyo, Japan).

‘On Article 2 and Dying with Assistance’ SLSA Annual Conference - University of Leeds (presenter - April 2019 - Leeds).

‘Re-defining 'assisted dying' in England and Wales: A new proposal for legalisation’ SLS Annual Conference - Queen Mary University of London (presenter - September 2018 - London).

‘How may Assisted Suicide be Legalised in England and Wales?’ Annual Leicester - Modena Conference - De Montford University Leicester (presenter - May 2018 - Leicester).

Human Rights Annual Conference, Lawyers without Boarders Student Division - King's College, Aberdeen University (invited speaker - April 2018 - Aberdeen).

‘The Last Human Right: A Critical Analysis of the Eligibility Criteria of the Commission on Assisted Dying’ A Right to Die? Socio-Legal Perspectives - Keele University (poster presentation - July 2017 - Keele).

‘Should you be suffering unbearably or be terminally ill to be allowed to die?’ SLSA Annual Conference 2017 - Newcastle University (presenter - April 2017 - Newcastle).

‘Terminal Illness as a Determinant for Assisted Dying Eligibility’ Edinburgh Postgraduate Conference: Law and its Boundaries - University of Edinburgh (presenter - January 2017 - Edinburgh).

'A Terminal Illness Criterion for Requesting Assistance in Dying?' Leicester-Modena Conference: A Dialogue on Law and Rights - University of Leicester (presenter - April 2016 - Leicester).

‘Rethinking Death: The Assisted Dying Bill 2014-15’ Midlands Postgraduate Conference in Law: Law, Rhetoric and Reality - University of Leicester (presenter - May 2015 - Leicester).

‘A Critical Approach for the UK Assisted Suicide Law’ Leicester-Modena Conference - Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italia (presenter - April 2015 - Italy).

‘Rethinking Death: Assisted Dying Bill 2014-15 the way forward?’ SLSA Annual Conference - University of Warwick (presenter - April 2015 - Warwick).

Νάταλη Παπαδοπούλου, 'Όχι δεν υπάρχουν γκρίζα σημεία στην νομοθεσία για την ευθανασία' (Αλήθεια, Κύπρος 2022)

Nataly Papadopoulou, 'How the Human Rights Act has helped the law on assisted suicide in England and Wales develop, and why we still need it' (Human Rights in Action project, April 2021)

Nataly Papadopoulou, 'The current call for a (fresh) inquiry on assisted suicide' (Journal of Medical Ethics blog, November 2020)

Nataly Papadopoulou, 'Assisted dying laws are progressing in some places - the UK isn't one of them' (The Independence and The Conversation, 2017)