Product Description

* Covers the major topics of medical law and ethics, combining detailed legal description and analysis with moral theory and philosophy * Considers the wider contextual pressures facing the law such as the impact of patient consumerism, and the changing perceptions of medicine * Chapters can be read individually to provide detailed overviews of specific topics or together, as part of the whole, for a comprehensive understanding of the subject * Examines the impact of increasingly direct (international and domestic) recognition of human rights * Details all legislative developments including the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005, as well as all key secondary legislation * Covers significant case law including Gregg v Scot; Re R (A Child) (IVF: Paternity of Child); R (Burke) v GMC; Chester v Afshar; R (Bruno Quintavalle on behalf of Pro-Life Alliance) v Secretary of State for Health; and R (Josephine Quintavalle on behalf of Comment on Reproductive Ethics) v HFEA * Includes reference to international instruments and the laws of other jurisdictions enabling students to compare with domestic law

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #252376 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 618 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent on ethics
This is the first student text on medical law and ethics which does anything like full justice to the ethics. There are some very worthwhile texts on medical law (e.g. Mason & McCall Smith), but all tend to be simplistic on ethical approaches in medical law and practice. This book begins to show the range of ethical theories available and the practical differences they make.
The author is even brave enough to include a final chapter in which he advocates one theoretical approach as the best. This is very much more advanced material than the rest of the book, but don't let that put you off buying it.
The purely legal material is solid, too. I recommend this book to all students of medical law, whatever text your course tutor has recommended.

A thumbs up from me
A thought-provoking,innovative guide for the student new to the field of medical law and ethics and also as a point of reference to the more experienced.

This book encompasses both on-going legal and ethics debates in medicine, while at the same time covering the legal and ethical aspects of very recent developments in biotechnology. In this way the book covers many areas in considerable detail.

The book defines the context of the ethical debate within a series of moral theories. Many of the moral theories considered are 'mainstream' (eg. utilitarianism, rights-based theories) and the author illustrates how these interact or conflict with each other within the context of each area of medical law covered. The author also explores other moral theories with which the reader may not be so familiar (eg. Gewirthian moral theory) thereby providing a sound overview of some of the current debates in medical ethics.