Exploring key aspects in the history of law's engagement with healthcare in England, this book unearths fascinating stories of the fractious relationship between the two highlighting lessons for medical law and bioethics that a focus on their history can offer. The popular view that the courts and legislators have from time immemorial consistently deferred to medical practitioners is shown to be wrong. Regulation of healers and the doctor/patient relationship and law's response to battles for dominance between different sorts of healers are examined. Healthcare in a broader sense than simply medical treatment is addressed. Considering historical perceptions of the human body at all life stages from the womb to the grave, the work identifies themes running through the history of how law responds to the problems generated by understanding of bodies and how science changes popular perceptions and law.
By:
Margaret Brazier
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 16mm
Weight: 558g
ISBN: 9781526129185
ISBN 10: 1526129183
Series: Contemporary Issues in Bioethics
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 01 March 2023
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface 1 Medico-legal history: why bother? 2 Medical brethren 3 ‘Unruly brethren’: regulation and reputation 4 The bumpy road to the General Medical Council 5 Medical litigation 6 Human life, common law and Christianity 7 Your living body: ‘temple of the soul’ 8 Reproductive bodies: mothers, midwives and morals 9 The not (yet) born child 10 Honouring the dead: commodifying the corpse Postscript Index -- .
Margaret Brazier is Professor Emerita in Law at the University of Manchester
