LAW47030: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MEDICAL LAW

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• The general aim of this module is to cultivate a critical appreciation of the legal and ethical difficulties raised by modern medical practice. More specifically, the aims and objectives include the following:
• To examine the law's involvement with medicine;
• To explore how legal principles might be most effectively used in the medical sphere;
• To develop ethical and contextual awareness of selected medical topics

• This module explores the ability of the law to adequately respond to ethical, social and policy challenges that arise in the context of medicine;
• It is research led (reflecting the current research strengths within the Biolaw staff in Durham Law School) and will focus upon contemporary issues of medical law and its ethical context;
• Topics will include a selection of the following:
• End of life decision-making;
• Advance decision-making in the context of end of life care, reproductive care and psychiatry;
• Reproductive ethics and the law;
• Surrogacy;
• Foetal protection;
• Abortion;
• Violence and abuse in reproductive healthcare;
• Human cloning and heritable genome editing;
• Pandethics;
• Prioritisation in health and law;
• Informed consent;
• Responding to risk.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• On completion of the module students should be able to demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of the existing law and issues of ethical controversy in medical contexts.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students should be able to:
• Analyse and evaluate the existing law in light of the legal, social, political and moral questions raised;
• Engage in an informed debate concerning current proposals for reform.

Key Skills:

• Students should gain the ability to research, analyse and understand legal materials and the literature relevant to medical law and ethics;
• Undertake independent research.

• This module will be delivered online with the exception of an intensive introduction to the module (3 hours) to be delivered through an in person workshop. This workshop will use a case study to introduce students to the key ethical theories and legal concepts relating to medical law and ethics. Thereafter there will be 4 segments (2 in each term) focussing upon a specific topic of medical law and ethics (see above for indicative topics). At the end of the module a further workshop will draw comparisons between the different segments, considering the extent to which different policy considerations frame the legal and ethical frameworks within which medicine is practised. During that workshop students will be given the opportunity to give a research presentation upon the topic of their assessed essay, following which formative feedback will be provided. Recorded lectures will be used to impart information and to guide students through the material they will have to research and analyse. Guest speakers from different policy and regulatory bodies (for example the GMC, Dignity in Dying, British Pregnancy Advisory Service) will be invited to give recorded presentations to expose students to a range of perspectives. Through discussion-led seminars (online) the students will be invited to draw on their existing legal knowledge and engage with domestic, international, comparative and European legal materials, as appropriate.
• The relevant learning outcomes will be achieved through:
• Monitoring the students understanding of the material and providing additional guidance where necessary;
• Enabling students to develop a critical view of the material covered through the formative essay and discussion-led seminars.

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