1st Edition

The Legitimacy of Medical Treatment What Role for the Medical Exception?

Edited By Sara Fovargue, Alexandra Mullock Copyright 2016
    274 Pages
    by Routledge

    274 Pages
    by Routledge

    Whenever the legitimacy of a new or ethically contentious medical intervention is considered, a range of influences will determine whether the treatment becomes accepted as lawful medical treatment. The development and introduction of abortion, organ donation, gender reassignment, and non-therapeutic cosmetic surgery have, for example, all raised ethical, legal, and clinical issues. This book examines the various factors that legitimatise a medical procedure.

    Bringing together a range of internationally and nationally recognised academics from law, philosophy, medicine, health, economics, and sociology, the book explores the notion of a treatment, practice, or procedure being proper medical treatment, and considers the range of diverse factors which might influence the acceptance of a particular procedure as appropriate in the medical context. Contributors address such issues as clinical judgement and professional autonomy, the role of public interest, and the influence of resource allocation in decision-making. In doing so, the book explores how the law, the medical profession, and the public interact in determining whether a new or ethically contentious procedure should be regarded as legitimate.

    This book will be of interest and use to researchers and students of bioethics, medical law, criminal law, and the sociology of medicine.

    Chapter 6 of this book 'Family perspectives on proper medical treatment for people in prolonged vegetative and minimally conscious states' by Celia Kitzinger and Jenny Kitzinger is available under an open access CC BY NC ND license and can be viewed at: http://preview.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/prevqa/NBK199156/ .

     

    1. Introduction, Sara Fovargue and Alexandra Mullock  2. Transforming wrong into right: What is "proper medical treatment"?, Margaret Brazier and Sara Fovargue  3. What do we mean by "proper" medical treatment?, Lucy Frith  4. Papist potions and electric sex: A historical perspective on "proper medical treatment", Barry Lyons  5. Moralising medicine: "Proper medical treatment" and the role of ethics and law in medical decision-making, José Miola  6. Family perspectives on proper medical treatment for people in prolonged vegetative and minimally conscious states, Celia Kitzinger and Jenny Kitzinger  7. The medical exception and cosmetic surgery: Culpable doctors and harmful enhancement?, Danielle Griffiths and Alexandra Mullock   8. Locating lawful abortion on the spectrum of "proper medical treatment", Mary Neal  9. Death on demand: Proper medical treatment?, Richard Huxtable  10. Doctors orders? Analysing appropriate medical treatment in mental health law, Judy Laing  11. The economics of "proper medical treatment", Cam Donaldson, Rachel Baker and Neil McHugh  12. Rationing, resource allocation, and appropriate medical treatment, Keith Syrett  13. Comments and reflections on "proper medical treatment": A case for coherent inconsistency, John Coggon

    Biography

    Sara Fovargue is Reader in Law, at Lancester University, and Co-Director of the Lancaster Centre for Bioethics and Medical Law.

    Alexandra Mullock is a Lecturer in Medical Law at the University of Manchester, and a member of the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy at the University.