Overview 

This conference seeks to bring together lawyers, clinicians, and representatives of faith and non-faith based communities in order to address key questions on consent, autonomy, and decision-making in the field of paediatric transplantation. Building on two workshops held in 2024, we aim to address key questions including: 

• How does the law regulate children as donors or recipients of transplants? 

• How are conflict of interests or rights (between parents and children, between parents, and between families and medical professionals) resolved in practice?

The significance of these questions is highlighted by the reality that children are increasingly considered to be autonomous and capable of making decisions relating to their body and future. Find out more here. 

Welcome Address: Sir Ernest Ryder (Master)

Keynote Public Lecture: Lord Justice Jonathan Baker, Judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.

Sir Jonathan Baker was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1978 and has been a Bencher of the Inn since 2009. He practised principally in family law, specialising in children’s cases, and was appointed a QC in 2001. He sat as an assistant recorder from 1998, as a recorder in 2000 and as a deputy High Court judge from 2003. 

In 2009, he was appointed a High Court judge assigned to the Family Division. From 2011 to 2017, he was Family Division Liaison Judge for the Western Circuit. From 2016 to 2018, he was judge in charge of appeals to the Family Division. From 2017 to 2018, he was Senior Family Liaison Judge, in which capacity he acted as Chair of the Family Procedure Rule Committee and of the Family Justice Council. He also sat as a judge of the Court of Protection and is the General Editor of the Court of Protection Practice. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal on 2 October 2018.

The Programme and Speakers:

Timetable 

The conference is organised by Dr Farrah Raza, Professor Jonathan Herring, and Sydney White.