• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

Medical Technology and the Law

Module description

Medical technology plays a crucial role in the healthcare of patients today. It saves lives when hope would have ordinarily been lost, and it improves the quality of life for those suffering from serious illnesses. However, the legal governance of medical technology often finds itself under scrutiny, sometimes in a court room, about the correct use of the technology and its appropriate limits. This may occur when a patient appears to be suffering unnecessarily because of the technology, or when a patient requests something of the technology that is far removed from the ‘natural’ course of events. This module will explore the law relating to medical treatment and the legal challenges facing medical technology, and the ethical quandaries it often brings. This module will be of interest to medical practitioners, negligence lawyers, and postgraduate students from several fields of law (including medical law, family law, social law, contract law, human rights, and technology and the law). It will provide a deeper knowledge of the law in the context of medicine and how it regulates technology, and it will explore the moral arguments for and against the use of certain technologies with case studies from the appeal courts.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module will explore the law relating to medical treatment and the legal and moral arguments for and against the use of certain medical technologies with case studies from appeal courts in several jurisdictions. This will inform the learner of the challenges facing medical/legal practitioners, and patients, and will introduce the learner to their own options regarding their healthcare.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. demonstrate a detailed knowledge of medical law and how it regulates the use of technology in medicine;
• 2. evaluate the legal and ethical issues arising from the use of technology in medicine and apply relevant legal theories to those issues;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. demonstrate a high level of ability in selecting, integrating and presenting relevant law and legal/theoretical arguments;
• 4. display a high level of ability in assessing information from a wide variety of primary and secondary legal sources and using this to produce reasoned arguments in relation to legal issues;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. manage relevant learning materials to develop reasoned arguments and opinions;
• 6. communicate and engage in debate effectively and accurately in a manner appropriate to the discipline and context.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• healthcare allocation and pharmaceuticals
• patient consent including adults, children, and incapacitated adults
• leading medical ethics including confidentiality and autonomy
• medical negligence
• the use of AI in medicine, DNA testing and genetic knowledge
• organ retrieval and transplants
• contraception, fertility treatment, gestation, surrogacy and abortion
• cosmetic surgery, gender transitions
• brain stem death and life support
• clinical trials.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Emily Jackson, ‘Medical Law: Text, Cases and Materials’ (6^th edn, Oxford University Press 2022).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Bioethics.com

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Medical Law Review
• Journal of Medical Ethics

Key words search

Medical technology, medical law, bioethics