Zaina completed her undergraduate at the University of Western Ontario, studying medical sciences and psychology. She relocated to the United Kingdom to undertake the Graduate LLB degree and completed a dissertation examining the legal requirement of consideration for contract formation in light of the proposed EU Directive on Certain Aspects Concerning Contracts for the Supply of Digital Content.
After completing the qualifying law degree, Zaina pursued an LLM in Intellectual Property Law, focussing on a comparative legal analysis into European and American morality concerns within the biotechnological patent regimes as related to human germline genetic engineering.
Zaina is currently undertaking a PhD which aims to create and sustain a culture and environment that promotes the health and wellbeing of surrogates by developing an alternative legal framework of surrogacy regulation, informed by an examination of surrogates’ lived experiences. This PhD is funded by the Wellcome Trust and as such, she is based out of the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health.
Research Interests
Zaina’s transdisciplinary PhD adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining socio-legal analysis with a feminist medico-sociological exploration of the lived experiences of surrogates and women wanting to act as surrogates (“would-be-surrogates”). The project undertakes an empirical approach to enhance the legal analytical component, as well as a qualitative investigation that will enable honest expression by the surrogates and would-be-surrogates within the legal context in order to further the goal of improving reproductive rights and create a healthier public.
Select Outputs
Z. Mahmoud. “In the Sexual Marketplace, Caveat Amator.” Exeter Law Review Blog, 2017.