Course summary

Individual and population health is a matter of growing social concern. Achieving good health and delivering effective healthcare demands scientific, medical and policy innovation. A variety of fields have a role to play, including law and ethics. As a student on this programme you will examine topics that reflect some of the main contemporary legal and ethical challenges faced by those working in healthcare and health research, and place them in their social and historical context. These include issues that arise in the context of genetics, assisted reproduction, abortion, standards of medical treatment, transplantation medicine, mental health, advance decisions, assisted suicide, health research, and the allocation of scarce resources. We offer you the opportunity to study the fundamentals of medical law and ethics, both international and domestic, at an advanced level, and the opportunity to take more specialised courses on issues of contemporary significance, encouraging and supporting the development of research skills necessary for a career in medical law or ethics. The legal and ethical experts who deliver this programme come from a wide range of disciplines from across the University, and they benefit from a close association with the J Kenyon Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and Law.