Medicine and Law: A Theoretical Approach

Journal of Medical Ethics, 2001

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...

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.

The Cambridge Law Journal, 1995

Journal of Medical Ethics, 2000

Medical Law Review, 2012

Margot Brazier has modelled the relationship between legal scholarship and health care practice -an evidence based approach to doing good in the real world through the application of the discipline of law. No ivory tower academic, but a good citizen. This paper explores the expression of her comprehensive contribution in an academic paper and a policy review.

Journal of Legal Medicine, 2019

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Current Legal Problems, 2000

The law’s relation with medicine has ceased to be one of mutual trust, with the claims that the law is adverse to the practice of medicine. Law is accused to foster the culture of blame that has led to the increase in errors in the hands of health professionals who are constantly worried over the threat of litigation. But the standards by which law measure the conduct of doctor is set by the medical profession itself, largely with the endorsement given by the courts in Bolam. This essay will look in to the truth of these claims and argue that such claims cannot be sustained.