Medical Law and Ethics

Citation

Pattinson, S. D. (2025). Medical Law and Ethics (7th ed.). Sweet & Maxwell.

Chapter Summary

The book has an introduction, seventeen numbered chapters and a bibliography, and runs to about 700 pages. After the introduction and an opening chapter on medical ethics, the contents list groups the chapters under headings: Resources, Negligence and Patient Information; Consent; Reproductive Medicine; Research; Transplantation; and The End of Life. The last chapter, headed Conclusion, returns to the theoretical question of a moral approach to medical law. The publisher describes the book as combining detailed legal description and analysis with moral theory and philosophy.

Introduction and Chapter 1: Medical Ethics

The book opens with an introduction and a chapter on medical ethics before the legal topics begin. The publisher says the book combines legal analysis with moral theory.

Chapters 2–4: NHS Structure and Resource Allocation; Clinical Negligence; Confidentiality and Data Protection

The first group, headed Resources, Negligence and Patient Information, takes the structure of the National Health Service and the allocation of its resources, the law of clinical negligence, and confidentiality and data protection.

Chapters 5–7: Consent I: Information, Voluntariness and Public Policy; Consent II: Capacity and Mental Health; Consent III: Capacity and Children

Consent is given three chapters. The first covers information, voluntariness and public policy; the second capacity, including in relation to mental health; and the third capacity and children. The publisher lists the capacity test as stated by the Supreme Court in A Local Authority v JB among the 7th edition's updates.

Chapters 8–10: Abortion; Reproductive Technologies; Prenatal Negligence

Under Reproductive Medicine, the book covers abortion, reproductive technologies and prenatal negligence. The publisher lists the Law Commissions' report on surrogacy among the updates.

Chapters 11–12: Embryo Research, Cloning and Heritable Genome Modification; Clinical Research

The Research group takes embryo research, cloning and heritable genome modification, then clinical research. The publisher lists detailed discussion of heritable genome editing and pending amendments to the 2004 Clinical Trials Regulations among the updates.

Chapters 13–14: Transplantation I: Living and Deceased Donors; Transplantation II: Payment, Alternatives and Property

Transplantation is covered in two chapters: the first on living and deceased donors, the second on payment, alternatives and property.

Chapters 15–16: End of Life Decisions I: Law; End of Life Decisions II: Ethical Controversy

The End of Life group separates the legal rules from the ethical controversy. The publisher lists the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill among the updates.

Chapter 17: A Moral Approach to Medical Law

The closing chapter, placed under the heading Conclusion, is titled A Moral Approach to Medical Law.

Key Concepts

Introduction and Chapters 1–4: Ethics, Resources, Negligence, Information

• Medical ethics: the moral framework against which the legal rules are tested (Chapter 1).
• Resource allocation: how the NHS structure and the allocation of limited resources are treated in Chapter 2.
• Clinical negligence: liability for substandard clinical care (Chapter 3).
• Confidentiality and data protection: the protection of patient information (Chapter 4).

Chapters 5–10: Consent and Reproductive Medicine

• Consent: information, voluntariness and public policy, and capacity in relation to mental health and children (Chapters 5–7).
• Capacity: the test of capacity, covered in Chapters 6 and 7.
• Reproductive technologies and prenatal negligence: topics of Chapters 9 and 10, with abortion in Chapter 8.

Chapters 11–17: Research, Transplantation, End of Life and Moral Approach

• Heritable genome modification and clinical research: Chapters 11 and 12.
• Transplantation, payment and property: Chapters 13 and 14.
• End of life decisions: law in Chapter 15 and ethical controversy in Chapter 16.
• A moral approach to medical law: the subject of Chapter 17.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Law joined to moral theory. The publisher says the book combines detailed legal description and analysis with moral theory and philosophy. The chapter list backs this up with a dedicated medical ethics chapter, an ethical-controversy chapter on the end of life, and a concluding moral chapter.
• Wider pressures on the law. The publisher says the book also considers pressures such as patient consumerism, changing perceptions of medicine and the effect of international and domestic recognition of human rights.
• Comparative references. According to the publisher, the book includes reference to international instruments and the laws of other jurisdictions so students can compare them with domestic law.
• Study aids. Summary boxes throughout each chapter highlight key points, and further reading at the end of each chapter and a detailed bibliography help wider reading, according to the publisher.
• Recognition. The publisher describes the book as the winner of the Minty Medico-Legal Society Prize for Medico-Legal Textbooks.

Limitations

• Length. At about 700 pages in seventeen chapters, the book is a full-scale text, so students on a short course will need to select chapters.
• Topics spread across chapters. Consent, transplantation and end of life each take two or three consecutive chapters, so a student studying one of these topics must read across several.
• Bills date quickly. Some updates the publisher lists concern pending measures (the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, amendments to the Clinical Trials Regulations), whose status will change after publication.

Where It Fits in the Course

Pattinson's Medical Law and Ethics is a single-author main text for a full medical law course, with moral theory built into its stated approach. The most direct alternative in the list is Jonathan Herring's Medical Law and Ethics (10th edition), which has eleven chapters and lays the law alongside ethical perspectives through features such as 'public opinion' and 'reality check'. The two can be read side by side on contested topics, with Pattinson's dedicated chapters on research and transplantation as a distinguishing feature.

For a first look, Charles Foster's Medical Law: A Very Short Introduction and Margaret Brazier, Emma Cave and Rob Heywood's Medicine, Patients and the Law are shorter and more accessible. Mason & McCall Smith's Law and Medical Ethics (edited by Anne-Maree Farrell and Edward Dove) is a long-established account that also covers Scots law, and Emily Jackson's Medical Law: Text, Cases, and Materials combines commentary with extracts of primary material.

How to Use This Book

The publisher describes the book as an ideal textbook for undergraduate law students, postgraduates and researchers, and as a supplementary reader for students of philosophy, ethics and medicine. Some earlier study of tort and public law should help with the negligence and NHS chapters; since the publisher presents the book as combining legal analysis with moral theory and philosophy, a philosophy background does not appear to be required.

A practical plan:

• Core: the introduction and Chapter 1 for the ethical framework, then Chapters 3 (clinical negligence) and 5–7 (consent).
• Context: Chapters 2 and 4 on the NHS and resource allocation and on confidentiality and data protection.
• By syllabus topic: Chapters 8–10 (reproductive medicine), 11–12 (research), 13–14 (transplantation) and 15–16 (end of life), reading each pair or group together.
• Closing argument: Chapter 17, after the others, to see the moral approach as a whole.

Use the summary boxes for revision and the further reading to extend each topic.