Winner of the Minty Medico-Legal Society Prize for Medico-Legal Textbooks, this acclaimed work by a leading expert in the field provides an authoritative and accessible exploration of medical law and ethics, essential for anyone navigating this challenging and ever-evolving area of study.

Medical Law and Ethics:

Covers the major topics including: Resources, Negligence, and Patient Information; Consent; Reproductive Medicine; Research; Transplantation; and The End of Life.
Combines detailed legal description and analysis with moral theory and philosophy.
Considers the wider contextual pressures facing the law such as the impact of patient consumerism, the changing perceptions of medicine, and the impact of increasingly direct (international and domestic) recognition of human rights.
Includes reference to international instruments and the laws of other jurisdictions enabling students to compare with domestic law.
Summary boxes throughout each chapter highlight key points and aid revision.
Further Reading at the end of each Chapter, and a detailed Bibliography, assist with wider reading and research.

New for the seventh edition:

Major recent structural reforms to the NHS.
Expression of the capacity test in the form specified by the Supreme Court in A Local Authority v JB.
The Law Commissions’ report on surrogacy.
Detailed discussion of heritable genome editing.
Pending amendments to the 2004 Clinical Trials Regulations.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
New cases and decisions including Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust; McCulloch v Forth Valley Health Board; Khan v Meadows; Bell v Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust; E v Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust; R. (Crowter) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Medical Law and Ethics is an ideal textbook for undergraduate law students, those studying at postgraduate level and researchers. The text will also provide a useful supplementary reader to students studying Philosophy, Ethics, and Medicine.

Winner of the 2010 Minty Medico-Legal Prize for best medico-legal book:

“Scholarly, comprehensive, and well referenced, Shaun Pattinson’s style ensures that the book is eminently readable throughout. lt will be of value not only to readers with a specific interest in medical law, but also to those concerned about the legal and moral aspects of modern medical treatments.”

Praise for Medical Law and Ethics:

McAlister (2015) 15 Medical Law International 196–200:

“Pattinson has rigorously rewritten his textbook for its fourth edition…Often it is at this point that a book reviewer might point out the flaws in, or lament the omissions from, the book he has considered. This latest edition of Pattinson’s textbook warrants no such criticism.”

Morgan (2007) Legal Studies 155–159:

“Pattinson has successfully woven a tapestry of often complex legal and ethical discourses into a manageable text.”

Smith (2006) 14 Medical Law Review 442–445:

“It is a clear, well-researched text that provides a much greater emphasis on medical ethics than is standard in the field.”

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Medical Law and Ethics, 7th Edition

Medical Law and Ethics, 7th Edition