This module will provide students with a detailed understanding of the general principles of medical law, including the significance of patient autonomy, capacity, consent to medical treatment, medical negligence and medical confidentiality. While the focus of the module is on legal issues, ethical considerations underlying this area of the law will also be addressed in the first weeks of term.
Teaching will begin with an overview of some of the main theories of medical ethics. Several weeks will then be dedicated to the law on consent to medical treatment, in particular questions such as: who can make decisions where a person needs medical treatment? Is an adult's right to make his/her own decisions absolute, or can it be limited, for example, if the adult lacks an understanding of the consequences of the decision, or where the refusal of treatment would lead to the person's death? Who can make treatment decisions if an adult lacks the ability to make his/her own decisions, and according to which criteria? And what about medical treatment of children?
The last part of the module will discuss some of the main issues in the law of medical negligence. For example, how is a doctor’s duty of care to the patient defined? Is this a question for the medical profession to decide, or should the judges define the standard of care? And how can causation be determined? Looking at developments in case law from Bolam to Bolitho and post-Bolitho cases, the different approaches to this question, and their consequences for both physicians and patients, will be discussed. A special problem in the context of medical negligence is how much information does a healthcare professional need to give to a patient prior to medical treatment.
Module Aims
to gain an understanding of medical law and ethics;
to understand the theoretical issues behind the legal topics covered;
to be able to apply the relevant law to scenarios;
to develop the capacity of students for critical analysis and to encourage independent research and reasoned argumentation.
- Module Supervisor: Sabine Michalowski