The relationship between medical law and good medical ethics

2010

Knowledge of the ethical and legal basis of medicine is as essential to clinical practice as an understanding of basic medical sciences. In the UK, the General Medical Council (GMC) requires that medical graduates behave according to ethical and legal principles and must know about and comply with the GMC's ethical guidance and standards. We suggest that these standards can only be achieved when the teaching and learning of medical ethics, law and professionalism are fundamental to, and thoroughly integrated both vertically and horizontally throughout, the curricula of all medical schools as a shared obligation of all teachers. The GMC also requires that each medical school provides adequate teaching time and resources to achieve the above. We reiterate that the adequate provision and coordination of teaching and learning of ethics and law requires at least one full-time senior academic in ethics and law with relevant professional and academic expertise. In this paper we set out an updated indicative core content of learning for medical ethics and law in UK medical schools and describe its origins and the consultative process by which it was achieved.

Journal of Medical Ethics, 1998

Teaching medical ethics Teaching medical ethics and law within medical education: a model for the UK core curriculum Consensus statement by teachers of medical ethics and law in UK medical schools* The General Medical Council has stated that medical ethics and law should constitute one of the core components of the medical curriculum.' The practice of good medicine inevitably raises both ethical and legal issues and demands an understanding of both. In this document, teachers of medical ethics and law in medical schools throughout the UK now offer their own consensus statement about the issues, concepts, arguments, skills and attitudes that all medical students should understand and know how to apply in practice by the time they qualify. This consensus proposes a minimal core undergraduate programme of work which we believe to be consistent with the stated objective of the General Medical Council that students should acquire a knowledge and understanding of "ethical and legal issues relevant to the practice of medicine" and an "ability to understand and analyse ethical problems so as to enable patients, their families, society and the doctor to have proper regard to such problems in reaching decisions".' Some organisational principles are also summarised which we believe to be crucial for the successful implementation of our proposed undergraduate programme.

An increasing number of scientists and doctors are concerned that new laws are inhibiting ethical research. This paper argues that this is not the case. Laws do not inhibit medical progress. Misunderstanding the law may do so.

Journal of Medical Ethics, 2001

Medical Education, 1991

Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2010

Current Legal Problems, 2000

IIUM Medical Journal Malaysia

The increasing awareness amongst the society on medico-legal issues as well as the growth of consumerist attitude towards the provision of medical services has caused the medical profession to be subjected to vociferous criticism if they do not meet rising expectations of the society. Substandard services have not been well tolerated and paternalistic approaches in medical treatment are considered to be outmoded and inappropriate. Any dissatisfaction on the part of the patient towards medical services provided nowadays may easily trigger claims in the court of law. This changing trend has also fundamentally changed the behaviour of the courts towards the medical profession. Judicial and legislative interventions in medical practice have created more and more rights for the patients and consequently, corresponding legal duties for the medical profession to uphold. In the present healthcare setting, the medical profession will not be able to provide infallible services without knowled...

Socio-Legal Aspects of Medical Practice, 1989

This collection of papers represents the outcome of a particular strategic decision by tire organisers of the original conference, namely that it worild be more valuable to concentrate on examining a limited range of topics where socio-legalresearcir on medical settings had already begun to develop than to attempt a general and, inevitably, more superficiai survey. It was felt that this would bring out more clearly the differences between traditionai styles of medico-iegal scholarship and the ner.t' approaches inspired by the meeting of law and the various sociai sciences. In particular, it would underline the research-based nature of this latter programme and seek to justify it in terms of its incipient products. By way of conclusion, however, tiris paper will adopt a more abstract approach in an attempt to define forrnally the difference between medico-legal studies, as these have been understood, and the socio-iegal analysis of health care and its delivery. In so doing, it will also attempt to give some indication of the way itr which other issues might be approached.

International Journal of Law and Society

Defining a legal field has functional importance and a legitimising usefulness for the field. There is no doubt that health care law (HCL) has emerged as a field of law and a discrete academic discipline in England and Wales with indicators that gradually became identifiable post-1980. Increasingly, patients aggrieved by their clinical experiences have sought redress in the courts. Doctors have also resorted to the courts for declarations as to the legality of proposed procedures that are ethically sensitive. The burgeoning litigation in healthcare has not only generated an avalanche of case law for academic study, but has also exposed the inadequacy of the common law in resolving the specific bioethical and legal challenges raised by healthcare. Specific legislation was enacted for the first time to address issues raised by medical advances. Concomitant with the evolution of this field of law was the emergence of its academic discipline. It entered the curriculum of legal education as many universities began to teach HCL. This eventually triggered a proliferation of textbooks and journals. The proliferation of literature was accompanied by the creation of academic research centres. Active scholarship in this field has manifested itself in four different doctrinal orientations, namely medical ethics, human rights, and multidisciplinary and socio-legal approaches.

Center for Scientific Research, Human Rights and Development (CENSREHURD), 2024

This course examines the intersection of law and ethics in the healthcare sector. Students will explore the legal principles that govern the delivery of healthcare services, as well as the ethical dilemmas that arise in clinical and public health settings. Topics will include patient rights, confidentiality, consent, professional conduct, medical malpractice, bioethics, and healthcare policy. Through case studies, role-playing, and legal analysis, students will develop critical thinking skills in navigating complex legal and ethical challenges in health-related contexts.

Over several decades, ethics and law have been applied to medical education and practice in a way that reflects the continuation during the twentieth century of the strong distinction between facts and values. We explain the development of applied ethics and applied medical law and report selected results that reflect this applied model from an empirical project examining doctors' decisions on withdrawing/withholding treatment from patients who lack decision-making capacity. The model is critiqued, and an alternative " constitutive " model is supported on the basis that medicine, medical law, and medical ethics exemplify the inevitable entanglement of facts and values. The model requires that ethics and law be taught across the medical education curriculum and integrated with the basic and clinical sciences and that they be perceived as an integral component of medical evidence and practice. Law, in particular, would rank as equal in normative authority to the relevant clinical scientific " facts " of the case, with graduating doctors having as strong a basic command of each category as the other. The normalization of legal knowledge as part of the clinician's evidence base to be utilized in practice may provide adequate consolation for clinicians who may initially resent further perceived incursions on their traditional independence and discretion.

Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 2019

Academic study of law relating to healthcare has flourished in the UK. Yet our field of study is often seen as ‘new’, both as an ‘area of importance in legal practice and as an academic discipline’. We argue that practical engagement between English law and medicine has a long history, a history revealing that claims of historic deference from one learned profession (the law) to another (medicine) is a myth. We further contend that ‘medical law’ as an academic discipline also enjoys a history. We explore these histories by looking back to the late medieval and early modern eras, and then show that crucial developments in more recent history have been overlooked in the emphasis on medical law as ‘new’. An appreciation of whence ‘medical law’ is crucial to assessing how future directions for law and scholarship in relation to the regulation of health may develop – whither it may go.

Legal Studies, 2006

In his Dimbleby Lecture in December 2002, the Archbishop of Canterbury examined the effect of the emergence of the market state on the legitimacy of government activity in areas of morality. He suggested that, while this is becoming limited, the continuing need to provide a moral context for social life provided an opportunity for religious communities to play a crucial role. This paper suggests that the increasing significance of market concepts in healthcare law poses a similar challenge to the moral basis of medical practice, threatening to drive moral argument outside the scope of the discipline, with the consequent effect of undermining the values that drive good healthcare. Thus, the de-moralisation of medicine is also demoralising for those within the health professions. To counteract this tendency, a strong sense of a common moral community needs to be maintained amongst those engaged with the discipline of healthcare law. This paper also examines the role of law in this are...

Investigación en Educación Médica, 2014

Substantial variation exists between schools and countries as regards the role of ethics, law and professionalism in medical curricula. Greater consistency of approach is needed between schools and countries to better safeguard standards of professional practice. From an international perspective these subjects are the focus of increasing attention as the nature of medical practice and regulation changes. This paper offers practical suggestions for raising Dealing with the subjects effectively during early medical training helps provide an appropriate grounding for future learning and practice.