Medical Ethics and Law

book cover medical ethics and law 3rd edition

Elsevier

Medical Ethics and Law 3rd Edition: A curriculum for the 21st Century
Authors: Dominic Wilkinson, Jonathan Herring and Julian Savulescu
Imprint: Elsevier
Published Date: 13th September 2019

This short textbook of ethics and law is aimed at doctors in training and in practice. Medical ethics and law are now firmly embedded in the curricula of medical schools. The ability to make clinical decisions on the basis of critical reasoning is a skill that is rightly presumed as necessary in today's doctors. Medical decisions involve not only scientific understanding but also ethical values and legal analysis. The belief that it is ethically right to act in one way rather than another should be based on good reasons: it is not enough to follow what doctors have always done, nor what experienced doctors now do.

The third edition has been revised and updated to reflect changes in the core curriculum for students, developments in the law as well as advances in medicine and technology. It includes a new ‘extensions’ section, providing an outline of important developing areas in medical ethics.

Key Features

  • The first part of the book covers the foundations of ethics and law in the context of medicine.
  • The second part covers specific core topics that are essential for health professionals to understand.
  • The third section of the book includes new chapters on cutting edge topics that will be crucial for the doctors and health professionals of tomorrow.

2nd edition

Wilkinson, D., Savulescu, J., Hope, T. and Hendrick, J., (2008), 'Medical Ethics and Law - The Core Curriculum', 2nd Edition, (Churchill Livingstone)

book cover of medical ethics and law, second edition, by Tony Hope, Julian Savulescu and Judith Hendrick

Elsevier

This is a short textbook of ethics and law aimed primarily at medical students. The book is in two sections. The first considers general aspects of ethics (in the context of medicine); the second section covers the topics identified in the ‘consensus agreement’. The content of medical law is not intended to be comprehensive and relates very much to the ethical issues.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Ethical and legal background: Reasoning about ethics. Ethics and legal background. Three core concepts in medical ethics - best interests, autonomy and rights. An introduction to law. Doctors, patients and professions.

Part 2. Specific topics. Consent. Confidentiality. Genetics. Reproductive medicine. Children. Mental disorder. End of life. Resource allocation. Research. Disease, disability and human enhancement.