Postgraduate Course: Law & Medical Ethics (5-credit) (LAWS11277)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 5 |
ECTS Credits | 2.5 |
| Summary | An online course designed for healthcare practitioners to learn about the critical medico-legal issues and developments in practice today.
The primary function of the course is to offer students a solid grounding in the 'fundamentals' of medical jurisprudence (eg: the central and pervasive concepts and principles relating to consent, negligence, confidentiality and mental competence, among others), and to discuss the relationship between the law, ethics, and the practice of medicine.
Several critical questions will be covered, such as:
&· What is legally valid consent?
&· What standards of care does the law expect of your profession?
&· When is it lawful to withhold or withdraw medical treatment?
&· When is it permissible to breach patient confidentiality?
&· How have human rights changed the face of modern medicine?
The course will enable students to investigate a broad range of legal and ethical conflicts and complexities that arise in the practice of modern medicine.
It consists of ten online learning modules:
&· Introduction to law & medical ethics
&· Consent to medical treatment
&· Refusal of medical treatment
&· Withholding & withdrawing care
&· Medical negligence
&· Patient confidentiality
&· Human rights & medical practice
&· Research & ethical approval
&· Mental capacity & mental health
&· Genetics, reproduction & the law
Credits from this course can be utilised towards further study on a relevant postgraduate programme at the University of Edinburgh, or at other institutions.
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| Course description |
Not entered
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
| Course Start Date |
11/01/2016 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
50
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 1,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
39 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Students must log in on a regular basis throughout the course, sufficient to have covered all modules; and they must contribute constructively to at least one online discussion in most weeks. They will also be assessed on a written essay of 2500 words. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes
By the end of the programme, students will be able to:
&· articulate the fundamental legal and ethical principles and concepts that inform and influence the practice of modern medicine;
&· reflect upon the role that concepts such as personhood, paternalism and autonomy have on health care professional duties, as well as on patient rights;
&· evaluate the central position of consent/refusal in medical care $ú in relation to different patients, including minors and the mentally incapacitated;
&· comment upon the concept of medical futility, and the legal and ethical elements relating to resource allocation, euthanasia and assisted suicide;
&· effectively assess the current systems of compensation for medical negligence;
&· give a critical account of the regulatory control of the medical profession, and the influences that structural issues have on broader questions of medical treatment;
&· contextualise current issues in medical research in terms of the historic development of relevant codes and principles;
&· understand and incorporate into practice the current and changing requirements regulating the medical treatment of mentally incompetent patients;
&· constructively criticise the current safeguards, limitations and protections relating to genetics and reproduction.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Graeme Laurie
Tel: (0131 6)50 2020
Email: Graeme.Laurie@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Clare Polson
Tel: (0131 6)51 4411
Email: Clare.Polson@ed.ac.uk |
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