Philosophical Foundations of Medical Law

With advances in personalised medicine, the field of medical law is being challenged and transformed. The nature of the doctor-patient relationship is shifting as patients simultaneously become consumers. The regulation of emerging technologies is being thrown into question, and we face new challenges in the context of global pandemics. This volume identifies significant questions and issues underlying the philosophy of medical law. It brings together leading philosophers, legal theorists, and medical specialists to discuss these questions in two parts. The first part deals with key foundational theories, and the second addresses a variety of topical issues, including euthanasia, abortion, and medical privacy. The wide range of perspectives and topics on offer provide a vital introduction to the philosophical underpinnings of medical law.

1 - Virtue Ethics and Medical Law
2 - Feminism, Ethics of Care, and Medical Ethics
3 - The Natural Law Foundations of Medical Law
4 - Consequentialism and the Law in Medicine
5 - Justice and Responsibility: a Deontological Approach to Medical Law
6 - Abortion, Feminism, and 'Traditional' Moral Philosophy
7 - How the Philosophy Gets In
8 - Virtue Theory and the Lawfulness of Withholding or Withdrawing Treatment or Care
9 - Dignity in Medical Law
10 - The Beginning and Ending of Life: Medical Law and Ethical Incoherence
11 - Proportionality in Medical Law
12 - Priority Setting, Judicial Review, and Procedural Justice
13 - Philosophy and Restrictions on Access to Assisted Reproductive Technologies
14 - Abortion on the Basis of a Risk of Disability: the Parents' Interests and Shared Interests
15 - Property in the Body and Medical Law
16 - Trafficking, Tourism and Trading: A Dark Convergence in Transplantation?
17 - Can a Reformed Surrogacy Law Reflect Pragmatism and Respect Ethics?
18 - Ageing and Fertility: Legal and Ethical Perspectives
19 - The Emergence of Family Care Agreements in an Ageing World
20 - The Problem of Mental Capacity in Self-Harming Egosyntonic Disorder
21 - Medical Privacy and Big Data: a Further Reason in Favour of Public Universal Healthcare Coverage
22 - The Age of Personalized Medicine—From Patients to Consumers: The Digital Environment, Clickwrap Contracts, and Implications for Autonomy

Andelka M. Phillips is Senior Lecturer at Te Piringa Faculty of Law, University of Waikato and a research associate atUniversity of Oxford's Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX). She was formerly the Ussher Assistant Professor in Information Technology Law at Trinity College Dublin.While at Oxford she was the General Editor of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal and the convenor of the Medical Law and Ethics Discussion Group. Thana C. de Campos is Assistant Professor at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. She is a research associate at the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights (Rome); the Von Hügel Institute (St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge); and at Las Casas Institute (Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford). Jonathan Herring is the DM Wolfe-Clarendon Fellow in Law and the Vice-Dean and Professor of Law in the Law Faculty at Oxford University.