This course addresses the growing interest in the interface of medicine, law, and ethics. With the increasing pressure on resource allocation within the National Health Service and current debates on an individual’s capacity to consent or refuse medical treatment, there is growing need for qualified legal professionals with an understanding of health law.

This course examines general principles such as consent to treatment and medical ethics, together with more specialist areas of Health Law including the law relating to:

You will gain an insight into the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on healthcare and the law, as well as exploring the link between ill health and poverty and the implications of this.... [-]

Individual and population health is a matter of growing social concern. Achieving good health and delivering effective healthcare demands innovation. A variety of fields have a role to play, including law.

As a student on this programme, you will examine topics that reflect some of the main contemporary legal and ethical challenges faced by those working in medicine, and place them in their social and historical context. These include issues that arise in the context of genetics, assisted reproduction, abortion, standards of medical treatment, transplantation medicine, mental health, advance decisions, assisted suicide, medical research, and the allocation of scarce resources.... [-]