Sourcebook on Medical Law

The burgeoning area of medical law is fast becoming an important part of the undergraduate syllabus. This new edition of Sourcebook on Medical Law draws together a wide range of essential material, including extracts from statutes, cases and academic commentary, and presents them in a lucid and logical form. The book is divided into two parts: the first looks at the general principles that permeate medical law, and features chapters on illness and the ethics of care, health care in England and Wales, consent to treatment, confidentiality, and medical malpractice; the second part considers the additional issues which arise in relation to specific areas of medical treatment, including infertility treatment and surrogacy, pregnancy and abortion, treating the incompetent, the mentally ill, medical research, organ transplants, and euthanasia. This new edition takes account of recent developments in this dynamic area of the law, particularly in the wake of the Human Rights Act 1998. A significant amount of new case law is examined, including the Court of Appeal decision in Re A (Children) to sanction the separation (thereby hastening the death) of a non-viable conjoined twin, and the application to the courts by Dianne Pretty to be lawfully assisted in her suicide.