Medical Law and Ethics

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Professor Patrick Hanafin
• Assessment: a 5000-word essay (50%) and examination (50%)

The 1990s was the decade of general recognition of medical law as a distinct subject of English Law and there are now lawyers who practise exclusively in the area of medical law. In terms of its subject matter medical law is concerned with the relationship between health care professionals and patients; with the regulation of new technologies of reproduction and life-preservation; and with the interference, by the state, in medically assisted lifestyle choices by individuals.

The aim of this module is to introduce you to this area of the law alongside selected moral, philosophical and historical commentary.

Teaching consists of two parts:

• Part I of the module will examine philosophical and legal principles concerning consent to research and medical treatment, resource allocation within the NHS, medical negligence, management of epidemics, and the ending of life. The seminars provide you with a framework for understanding the issues that arise in these topics and the competing tensions between ethical approaches, legal rights, limited resources, professional obligations and the political structures that govern the NHS. The module will focus on cases, statutes, health policy and medical dilemmas, using them to identify ethical and legal issues relevant to the topics of each seminar.
• Part II will examine the legal and ethical issues posed by assisted reproductive technologies and genetic technologies. The seminars will examine how such technologies are governed both at a national and international level. They will provide you with an analytical framework for understanding opportunities and problems associated with such technologies and the political frameworks used to regulate them. You will be able to examine and analyse the ever-expanding legal regulatory framework that governs this area as well as the ethical and social questions which issues such as, for example, assisted reproduction, abortion and genetic technology raise. Topics will include regulatory strategies in the area of human fertilisation and embryology, the human genome project, human gene therapy, human cloning and embryo stem cell research. In each instance we will examine the legal and ethical challenges posed, critique current law and ethics, and explore alternative recommendations.