Scientific and clinical advances, social and political developments and the impact of healthcare on our lives raise profound ethical and legal questions. Medical law and ethics have become central to our understanding of these problems, and are important tools for the analysis and resolution of problems – real or imagined.
In this series, scholars at the forefront of biomedical law and ethics will contribute to the debates in this area, with accessible, thought-provoking, and sometimes controversial ideas. Each book in the series will develop an independent hypothesis and argue cogently for a particular position. One of the major contributions of this series is the extent to which both law and ethics are utilised in the content of the books, and the shape of the series itself.
Edited
By Dagmar Schmitz, Angus Clarke, Wybo Dondorp
April 18, 2018
Due to new developments in prenatal testing and therapy the fetus is increasingly visible, examinable and treatable in prenatal care. Accordingly, physicians tend to perceive the fetus as a patient and understand themselves as having certain professional duties towards it. However, it is far from ...
Edited
By Sara Fovargue, Alexandra Mullock
November 10, 2017
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 ...
By Neera Bhatia
February 07, 2017
Decisions to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment are contentious, and offer difficult moral dilemmas to both medical practitioners and the judiciary. This issue is exacerbated when the patient is unable to exercise autonomy and is entirely dependent on the will of others. This book...
By Kirsty Horsey
February 07, 2017
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 was a major update to the UK’s laws on the use and regulation of reproductive technology and assisted reproduction. Since the enactment of the new law, the sector’s regulatory body, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has also ...
Edited
By Richard Huxtable, Ruud ter Meulen
January 27, 2017
This book reflects on the many contributions made in and to European bioethics to date, in various locations, and from various disciplinary perspectives. In so doing, the book advances understanding of the academic and social status of European bioethics as it is being supported and practiced by ...
By Karen Devine
January 24, 2017
Since the therapeutic value of umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells was first recognised in the late 1980s, there has been a proliferation of both public and private UCB banks worldwide. However, the ability to utilise such a potentially valuable resource has provoked a number of controversies. In...
By Sam Halliday
May 16, 2016
Technology has come to dominate the modern experience of pregnancy and childbirth, but instead of empowering pregnant women, technology has been used to identify the foetus as a second patient characterised as a distinct entity with its own needs and interests. Often, foetal and the woman’s ...
By Sarah Devaney
December 07, 2015
Hopes are high that stem cell (SC) research will lead to treatments and cures for some of the most serious diseases affecting humankind today. SC science has been used in a treatment setting in the replacement of patients’ windpipes and in restoring sight to patients who were blind in one eye and ...
Edited
By Catherine Stanton, Sarah Devaney, Anne-Maree Farrell, Alexandra Mullock
November 12, 2015
This book celebrates Professor Margaret Brazier’s outstanding contribution to the field of healthcare law and bioethics. It examines key aspects developed in Professor Brazier’s agenda-setting body of work, with contributions being provided by leading experts in the field from the UK, Australia, ...
Edited
By Bernadette Mcsherry, Ian Freckelton
July 16, 2015
There has been much debate about mental health law reform and mental capacity legislation in recent years with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also having a major impact on thinking about the issue. This edited volume explores the concept of ‘coercive care’ in relation ...
By Yue Wang
July 16, 2015
Human population genetic research (HPGR) seeks to identify the diversity and variation of the human genome and how human group and individual genetic diversity has developed. This book asks whether developing countries are well prepared for the ethical and legal conduct of human population genetic ...
By Michelle Taylor-Sands
July 16, 2015
Genetic screening technologies involving pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) raise particular issues about selective reproduction and the welfare of the child to be born. How does selection impact on the identity of the child who is born? Are children who are selected for a particular purpose ...