The Criminal Justice System and Health Care

by Erin, Charles A.; Ost, Suzanne

• ISBN13: 9780199228294
• ISBN10: 0199228299
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book examines questions of medical accountability and ethics. It analyses how the criminal justice system regulates health care practice, and to what extent it can and should be used as a tool to resolve ethical conflict in health care. For most of the twentieth century, criminal courts were engaged in matters relating to medicine principally as a forum to resolve ethical controversies over the sanctity of life. However, the judiciary approached this function with reluctance and a marked tendency to defer to the medical profession to define what constituted ethical, and thus lawful conduct. However, over the past 25 years, criminal courts have increasingly been drawn into these types of question, and the criminal law has become a major actor in the resolution of ethical conflict. The trend to prosecute for aberrant professional conduct or medical malpractice and the role of the criminal process in medicine has been analytically neglected in the UK. There is scant literature addressing the appropriate boundaries of the criminal process in resolving ethical conflict, the theoretical legal analysis of the law's relationship with health care, or the practical impact of the criminal justice system on professionals and the delivery of health care in the UK. This volume addresses these issues via a combination of theoretical analyses and key case studies, drawing on the experiences of other carefully selected jurisdictions. It places a particular emphasis on the appropriateness of the involvement of the criminal justice system in health care, the limitations of this developing trend, and solutions to the problems that arise from it.

Author Biography

Charles A. Erin is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Philosophy, School of Law, University of Manchester
Suzanne Ost is a Lecturer in Law, School of Law, University of Manchester

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. xv
Table of Cases	p. xvii
Table of Legislation	p. xxiii
An Ill-Suited and Inappropriate Union? Exploring the Relationship Between the Criminal Justice System and Health Care	p. 1
Criminalizing Medical Malpractice	p. 15
Medical Manslaughter: The Rise (and Replacement) of a Contested Crime?	p. 29
Medical or Managerial Manslaughter?	p. 49
When Are Errors a Crime?-Lessons from New Zealand	p. 67
Euthanasia and the Defence of Necessity: Advocating a More Appropriate Legal Response	p. 99
Criminal Law is the Problem, Not the Solution	p. 119
Lessons in Legal and Judicial Ethics from Schiavo: The Special Responsibilities of Lawyers and Judges in Cases Involving Persons with Severe Cognitive Disabilities	p. 137
Medical Treatment at the End of Life-A British Doctor's Perspective	p. 165
Dignity: The Difference Between Abortion and Neonaticide for Severe Disability	p. 175
Terminating Life and Human Rights: The Fetus and the Neonate	p. 189
Non-treatment of Severely Disabled Newborns and Criminal Liability Under Spanish Law	p. 207
Should We Criminalize HIV Transmission?	p. 225
The Rightful Domain of the Criminal Law	p. 237
Medicalizing Crime-Criminalizing Health? The Role of Law	p. 257
Index	p. 273
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.