Unit information: Medicine and Law in 2014/15

Unit name	Medicine and Law
Unit code	LAWD30004
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Professor. Judy Laing
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None, other than those pre-requisites for undertaking study on the programme BSc (Hons) in Bioethics
Co-requisites	None, other than those co-requisites for undertaking study on the programme BSc (Hons) in Bioethics.
School/department	University of Bristol Law School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

This unit provides an introduction to the general principles of Medical Law and a detailed study of specific topics within the field. General topics are:

• medical ethics and medical law;
• regulation of the medical profession;
• dealing with medical mishaps;
• consent to treatment (adults, children, mentally incompetent persons);
• mental health;
• confidentiality and access to records.

Specific topics, not all of which will be covered each year, are:

• beginning of life (assisted conception: IVF/donor insemination/surrogacy; research on human embryos; contraception and abortion; wrongful birth and wrongful life; genetic screening and counselling; ante-natal duties of care);
• medical research;
• organ donation and transplantation;
• end of life (definitions of death and dying; treatment of patients with serious/terminal illness; severely ill/handicapped new-borns; advance directives);
• allocation of resources.

Intended Learning Outcomes

The unit is intended to enable students to develop a good understanding of the principles of Medical Law, an introduction to the areas of medical ethics that relate to the law and a facility in relating one to the other. Although we expect students to become familiar with the relevant cases and statutes, a very important aspect of the course is the question of what the law should be.

Sometimes, in fields characterised by rapid technical advances, there will be no law. In other areas, the law is being made and public opinion solicited. The students’ own (considered) views matter; an exchange of ideas is an essential component of the course. Often, lecturers and students will differ in their opinions. We fully expect this and hope it will lead to good discussion.

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• state the law accurately;
• apply legal principles to problem case scenarios;
• relate the legal principles to that which they have learnt in their originating programme of study (e.g. MBChB Medicine) and clinical practice;
• think critically about ways in which the law could be reformed, making appropriate reference to bioethical theories, concepts and approaches.

This unit is also intended to improve benchmark skills, specifically Information Technology skills, which are used in particular to find recent case law relating to all aspects of medical law. Furthermore, in distinction to the unit LAWD20039, this unit aims to develop and test higher level skills. In addition to relating what they learn on this unit to their learning on the other units studied on the BSc (Hons) in Bioethics, students will be expected to be able to relate aspects of medical law to their prior learning on their originating programme (usually MBChB Medicine) and clinical practice.

Teaching Information

22 lectures, 8 tutorials & 2 guest lectures/workshops.

Assessment Information

Two summative pieces of coursework of 2,000 words, the first contributing 40% to the final mark and the second contributing 60% to the final mark. Students will also have the opportunity to submit one formative essay.

Reading and References

Jackson, E. (2013) Medical Law: Text, Cases and Materials (3rd Edition), Oxford University Press, Oxford