This chapter discusses various aspects of ethics and medical law. It begins with a definition of medical law. It then covers the nature of illness, the scope of medicine, the sociological impact of being ill, UK health statistics, and general ethical principles. This is followed by discussions of the notion of rights; patients’ obligations; principlism; hermeneutics; casuistry; feminist medical ethics; care ethics; virtue ethics; and communitarian ethics. It also explains the role of theology, relativism, and pragmatism in medical ethics. The chapter also explores the links between ethics and law. It cannot be assumed that because something is unethical it must be unlawful, nor that everything unlawful is necessarily unethical.
Chapter
1. Ethics and Medical Law
Chapter
1. Introduction to Bioethics
A. M. Farrell and E. S. Dove
This chapter is the first of two in this textbook that focus on bioethics. This chapter introduces the aims, scope, and methods of the applied field of bioethics, and of the wider discipline of ethics in which it is located. It explains why (bio)ethical analysis is an essential companion to legal scholarship when it comes thinking about ‘what should be done’ in health and medical contexts. This chapter takes the first steps in equipping the reader with the tools to engage in bioethical debate. It indicates the kinds of language used in these debates. And it emphasises the importance of reason-giving and conceptual clarity. Expanding on the theme of reason-giving, it explores some the places we might look for relevant and persuasive grounds to support our ethical claims. In doing so it highlights important distinctions between ethical claims, on one hand, and empirical observations, personal preferences and intuitions, community norms, and popular opinions, on the other. It looks briefly at the role of principles in bioethics, and the value of identifying context-responsive principles and priorities rather than relying on prescribed frameworks. It closes by introducing the idea of ‘interests’ and suggesting that identifying whose interests are affected, and how, are important steps in developing and defending our responses to ethical dilemmas.
