Main description:

Through socio-legal, theoretical, comparative and historical analysis, case studies and empirical research, this three-volume set offers balanced arguments which help the reader form a reasoned view on the ethical legitimacy of the invocation and use of criminal law to regulate medical practice and bioethical issues. To date, little analysis exists of the criminal process's role in regulating medical practice, its role as an arbiter of bioethics, or its ability to serve as an appropriate forum for judging ethical medical dilemmas. The books analyse how effectively the criminal law can and does operate as a forum for resolving ethical conflict in the contexts of health care, scientific research and biotechnologies. Key questions that are addressed include: how does criminal law regulate controversial bioethical areas? What effect does the use of criminal law have when regulating bioethical conflict? Can the law accommodate moral controversy? And are bioethics and criminal law compatible?

Contents:

Volume 1: 1. Introduction – when criminal law encounters bioethics: a case of tensions and incompatibilities or an apt forum for resolving ethical conflict? Amel Alghrani, Rebecca Bennett and Suzanne Ost; Part I. Death, Dying, and the Criminal Law: 2. Euthanasia and assisted suicide should, when properly performed by a doctor in an appropriate case, be decriminalised John Griffiths; 3. Five flawed arguments for decriminalising euthanasia John Keown; 4. Euthanasia excused: between prohibition and permission Richard Huxtable; Part II. Freedom and Autonomy: When Consent Is Not Enough: 5. Body integrity identity disorder – a problem of perception? Robert Smith; 6. Risky sex and 'manly diversions': the contours of consent in criminal law – transmission and rough horseplay cases David Gurnham; 7. 'Consensual' sexual activity between doctors and patients: a matter for the criminal law? Suzanne Ost and Hazel Biggs; Part III. Criminalising Biomedical Science: 8. 'Scientists in the dock': regulating science Amel Alghrani and Sarah Chan; 9. Bioethical conflict and developing biotechnologies: is protecting individual and public health from the risks of xenotransplantation a matter for the (criminal) law? Sara Fovargue; 10. The criminal law and enhancement – none of the law's business? Nishat Hyder and John Harris; 11. Dignity as a socially constructed value Stephen Smith; Part IV. Bioethics and Criminal Law in the Dock: 12. Can English law accommodate moral controversy in medicine? The case of abortion Margaret Brazier; 13. The case for decriminalising abortion in Northern Ireland Marie Fox; 14. The impact of the loss of deference towards the medical profession José Miola; 15. Criminalising medical negligence David Archard; 16. All to the good? Criminality, politics, and public health John Coggon; 17. Moral controversy, human rights and the common law judge Brenda Hale. Volume 2: 1. The 'doctoring type'; 2. 'The sleep of death': 150 years of anaesthesia-related mortality and the courts; 3. Victims and prosecution policy; 4. The road to the dock: prosecution decision-making in medical manslaughter cases; 5. Medical manslaughter: the role of context and character; 6. Doctors who kill and harm their patients: the Australian experience; 7. Medical manslaughter: organisational liability; 8. 'From prosecution to rehabilitation': New Zealand's response to health professional negligence; 9. The role of the criminal law in healthcare in France: examining the HIV blood contamination scandal; 10. Pain relief, prescription drugs, and prosecution in the US; 11. Exploring the tension between physician-assisted dying and palliative medicine; 12. Psychiatric care and criminal prosecution; 13. 'Involuntary automaticity' and medical manslaughter; 14. Maternity services and the impact of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007; 15. Disease transmission and prosecution. Volume 3: Introduction; 1. Courtrooms, 'physic' and drama; 2. Crime, doctors and the body (politic); 3. From the 'theatre' to the dock; 4. Protecting life before birth; 5. Medical (and non-medical) ending of life; 6. Which twin lives?; 7. Drawing connections: morality, political liberalism, responsibility and interpretation; 8. Parallels and disconnects: principlism in bioethics, principles of criminalisation and the rule of law; Conclusion.