Prof Emily Jackson

Additional Teachers:

Dr Julie McCandless, Mr Antony Blackburn-Starza

This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law and LLB in Laws. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available to General Course students.

Medical law is a rapidly developing and increasingly important subject. The rationing of expensive new drugs, and the future of the NHS have become central political issues.  New scientific developments, such as face, limb and womb transplants, stem cell research and direct-to-consumer genetic testing, are invariably accompanied by demands for their regulation. In this course we examine the legal framework within which health services are provided, and we explore some of the difficult ethical dilemmas that arise when determining the limits of medical innovation. 

Subjects include malpractice litigation; consent; capacity; confidentiality; research on human subjects; resource allocation; abortion; surrogacy; assisted conception; ‘designer babies’; embryo and stem cell research; regulation of medicines; mental health law; organ transplantation and assisted dying.

10 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT. 1 hour of lectures and 1 hour of classes in the ST.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT and 1 essay in the LT.

Jackson, Medical Law: Text, Cases and Materials 4th edition (Oxford UP, 2016).

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the main exam period.