LAU44151 Medical Law And Ethics

 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, students should be able to:

• Accurately describe and apply law to novel situations that arise in medical practice.
• Explain medical technologies and procedures to a non-specialist audience.
• Debate ethical and philosophical issues that arise in healthcare in a thorough but sensitive manner, while responding to questions and comments.
• Identify the principles, values and rights at play in medical practice.
• Situate Irish law in the international context and draw relevant comparisons between schemes of regulation in different jurisdictions.
• Research and write on complex medico-legal topics.

Module Content

Medical Law and Ethics will give students the opportunity to tackle contemporary legal issues in medicine and healthcare. The module will deal both with the black-letter law that governs medical practice and with the broader philosophical, ethical and social questions that are raised by medical advances. Students will be guided through the range of legal and quasi-legal instruments that regulate medical practice, including the Constitution, Tort Law, and professional guidelines, and encouraged to consider the advantages and disadvantages of these regulatory tools.

As well as providing students with a thorough grasp of Irish Law, the module will be substantially comparative in nature. Comparative legal study will be especially valuable on topics that are unregulated, or under-regulated by Irish Law. This module aims both to prepare students for practice in the field of medical law, and to encourage critical thinking and exploration of the theoretical challenges presented by the subject.   

Students will on occasion be required to read certain materials ahead of class. To this end, the reading list will be divided into required reading and further reading. Students will be expected to analyse the topics in class, and to participate in class discussions. As well as using traditional legal materials the course will draw on relevant work from the fields of science, philosophy, sociology and politics.