Diverse Voices
You are looking at 1 - 10 of 53 items
This chapter explores the law on abortion and contraception in the UK through a feminist lens, considering ethical perspectives on reproductive autonomy and critiques of the current law from this viewpoint. This chapter introduces two key abortion law reform debates: decriminalisation, in light of increasing investigations and prosecutions of suspected illegal abortions; and abortion on the grounds on fetal disability, following recent legal challenges to this ground. Perspectives from disability rights advocates are introduced here to highlight the discriminatory nature of the law. Finally, this chapter introduces the reproductive justice framework – a concept developed by Black women in the US context – and applies it as a critique of court-ordered abortion and contraceptive decisions for people with intellectual disabilities.
This chapter explores the relevance of ethnicity, sexuality, and age in the law of assisted reproduction and infertility. We consider the extent to which the law engages with the interests of individuals of different ethnicities, LGBTQI+ individuals and families, and different age groups. The impact of this, including the symbolic messages that the law communicates through to the effect that clinical practice has on families undergoing treatment, can be felt at several levels. With this in mind, this chapter explores the ways in which the voices of non-dominant groups become marginalised in discourses surrounding assisted reproductive technologies and how we can foreground a more diverse range of voices in relation to this.
This chapter is concerned with medical decision-making for, with, and by mature children. Through a combination of academic discourse absent from the dominant literature and a case study from fiction (The Children Act by Ian McEwan), this chapter conducts a fresh exploration of ethical dilemmas that arise in child medical law. This chapter discusses the incremental changes in interpretation and application of the Gillick test, sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and section 8 of the Family Law Reform Act 1969 to understand minors’ power to consent and the much more limited power to refuse.
Clinical research is the controlled experimentation of drugs, devices, and procedures tested on human participants. Ethics of clinical research is the systematic investigation of the ethical issues that arise from this practice. The ethical knot at the centre of clinical research hinges on the question of how to balance the benefits for future patients with the burdens and risk for current participants. The chapter first discusses the roots and foundations of clinical research ethics through a historically informed outlook. We then present two key and interrelated concepts in research ethics: clinical equipoise and therapeutic misconception. Second, the chapter discusses the emergence of adaptive and platform trials in the COVID-19 pandemic and unpacks the ethical and epistemological implications of adaptive trials for the concepts of clinical equipoise, and therapeutic misconception, the long-standing idea in clinical research that we should strive to keep the aims of research and the aims of care as clearly separate.
Confidentiality, the protecting of patient information to keep it private, is a key facet of good healthcare that is recognised by the law. Health data is highly sensitive and is protected by the law surrounding data protection as well as the individual right to privacy. However, confidentiality is not always absolute. Sometimes patient information can, or must, be shared where necessary to protect the public interest or the patient themselves. Deciding when disclosure is both lawful and the right thing to do is challenging for health professionals. This chapter explores two case studies that exemplify the importance of confidentiality and the complex dilemmas it can present: safeguarding (adults and children) and abortion-reporting requirements.
The landmark Supreme Court judgment in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board devotes key attention to patients’ right to informed consent (IC). Patients are no longer passive recipients of medical advice, but consumers exercising choices. The judgment, in a move beyond medical paternalism, stresses that patients’ voices and their right to be informed are vital. In this chapter, while welcoming the recognition of such move, we highlight that consumerism can risk perceiving patients in an overly narrow way, crucially ignoring their voices. This chapter provides arguments in favour of a novel and diverse approach to the debate on IC, based on what we call ‘Ethics of Love’, which encompasses a more comprehensive account of patients’ voices, needs, and interests in the decision-making process.
This chapter outlines the key ethico-legal issues regarding death and dying, including assisted dying and withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining treatment. It then highlights the palliative care perspective, which is a sometimes neglected but important part of end-of-life care that warrants greater ethical and legal attention. The chapter explains the aims of palliative care, its significance to global healthcare goals, and outlines how it is practised and regulated in different settings. Finally, the chapter focuses on the major ethical issue of disparity in access to good-quality palliative care, and offers some examples of how this issue has been addressed through policy interventions. While highlighting what is unique to the palliative care perspective, the chapter situates the discussion in the legal context of regulating death and dying in England and Wales.
Understandings of health may vary depending on the circumstances and context within which the term is being used. Using the definition of health in the World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution as an example, this chapter explores the complexities associated with attempting to define health in law. Rather than attempting provide an authoritative definition of health, the chapter instead creates a set of parameters within which the task of defining health can take place – arguing, in particular, that health must not be defined in relation to norms in order to avoid perpetuating bias and stigma.
