LAW7133

Legal issues in medicine ( 6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL)

Leader: Dr Sarah Middleton

Offered:
Clayton First semester 2006 (Day)

Synopsis: Practising law and practising medicine. Principles governing clinical medical practice. The foundation of medical ethics. The relationship between medicine and allied health professions. The regulation of the medical profession. Doctors, patients and the law and alternatives to litigation. Medical negligence and consent. Rights to refuse medical treatment, and competence and incompetence in law and medicine. Medical confidentiality. Law and psychiatry. The body as property. Medical research: volunteers, institutional ethics committees and the law. Medical treatment and the end of life. The beginnings of life: novel birth technologies and abortion. Doctors in court.

Objectives: Students will develop an appreciation of the different rationales and roles of legal and medical practice, as well as those areas where the concerns and values of both professions coalesce. Law students completing this subject should have an understanding of the structure and organisation of the medical profession, and in that context a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of a number of major issues and concepts fundamental to the doctor-patient relationship, which have implications of a social, ethical and legal kind.

Assessment: Two class tests: 40% + Research paper (3000-4000 words): 60%

Contact Hours: One 3-hour session per week (and 2 or 3 day visits program in the mid-semester break)

Prerequisites: Medical students: third year of the MBBS