Medical Ethics and Law

Course Overview

Advances in biomedical technology, changing moral attitudes and developments in the law combine to generate difficult ethical, legal, policy challenges for those involved in the delivery of healthcare. This programme will provide an opportunity for you to gain a deeper and more systematic understanding of these issues and to explore the moral problems faced by healthcare practitioners as well as those involved in healthcare management and policy.

Neonatal Registrar, Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Ethics and Law

"I have thoroughly enjoyed the course and found it a very valuable experience which I hope will make me a better doctor. "

Beverley Bostock, MA in Medical Ethics and Law, 2017

"The course was flexible to fit in with work and the quality of the teaching staff was superb "

About the course

We welcome applications from people with a professional or other serious interest in Medical Ethics and Law, including (but not limited to) doctors, nurses, lawyers, health care managers, intercalating medical students, radiographers, chaplains, charity and voluntary workers, social workers, hospice directors, medical and pharmaceutical researchers, philosophers, dentists, veterinary practitioners and health care educators. While the programme is designed to be accessible to healthcare professionals in full-time work, it is open to anyone who is suitably qualified and who can demonstrate sufficient academic aptitude. The programme has increasingly attracted recent graduates who wish either to build on previous study in law or ethics or to develop their studies in a new direction. It can provide a foundation for study at doctoral level for those interested in doing so.

Undertaking an MA in ethics will not give you a list of answers to moral problems. The moral problems worth looking at are all hard – there are no easy answers. What our programme can do is help you to work out answers for yourself, answers that are worth having because they are based on the best ethical thinking and reasoning we can manage, answers you can justify to yourself and others. The programme will introduce you to a variety of rival moral theories - all of which have their strengths and their weaknesses - as well as providing you with a range of analytical tools with which to assess different ethical and legal claims. It will also help you to communicate ethical and legal arguments to others in a clearer way.

Although ethical issues are rarely out of the headlines, much public ‘debate' about ethics in the media is (with occasional honourable exceptions) of very poor quality. It often consists of 'sound-bite' rhetorical assertions followed by counter-assertions, without any real examination of the ethical reasons for either position. Our courses will help you to construct, categorise and criticise different ethical arguments and to spot common fallacies. As well as critiquing others' arguments you will have plenty of opportunity to practise putting forward your own arguments in classroom discussion as well as in your written assessments. Ethics at Keele is a participatory activity, not a spectator sport!

Course structure

HOW THE COURSE IS TAUGHT:

The MA in Medical Ethics and Law consists of four 30-credit taught modules and a 60-credit dissertation.

Teaching for the four taught modules is delivered in short intense blocks, enabling those in full-time employment to fit part-time study around the demands of their work wherever they are based. Each student is assigned a personal supervisor whom they can contact for help or advice at any time during the course.

Part-time students take the four taught modules in year 1 and the dissertation in year 2. The part time programme requires only 13 days attendance in year 1 (an Induction Day and four 3-day intensive teaching blocks) and two days in Year 2 ( a Research Methods Study Day in October and a Presentations Workshop in March). Many second year students find it useful to come to Keele more frequently, to meet their supervisors, attend talks by visiting speakers, and use other university facilities. Others, especially those who live some distance away, prefer to keep in touch via email or phone, or use a combination of methods.

Full-time students including intercalating medical students complete the whole programme in one year, writing the dissertation alongside the taught modules.

Modular students can spread the taught modules over up to four years, taking the dissertation in the fifth year. The Semester 1 modules must normally be completed before the Semester 2 modules.

Students who do not wish to complete the entire MA programme may exit after completing the taught modules. Successful completion of all four taught modules (120 credits) leads to the award of a Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Ethics and Law; while successful completion any two taught modules (60 credits) leads to the award of a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Ethics and Law.

We regard high levels of student participation in discussion as particularly important for teaching and learning in this area, and employ teaching techniques which encourage this wherever possible. Students come from a wide range of backgrounds and report that meeting and exchanging ideas with others who work in different fields and in different parts of the country is one of the major benefits of the course.

Core Taught Modules

MODULE 1: MORAL THEORY AND MEDICAL ETHICS (30 CREDITS)

This module will equip you with a knowledge of key ethical theories, frameworks and principles that inform academic debates in medical and healthcare ethics, and will enable you to use these tools to analyse practical moral problems in medicine and healthcare. It will also provide you with a practical understanding of the norms and conventions of academic argument and writing in applied ethics.

Topics covered typically include:

consequentialism
deontology
virtue ethics
principlism
autonomy and paternalism
the ethical foundations of consent
liberty and toleration
evaluating and constructing ethical arguments
introduction to the library and electronic resources
how to write essays in ethics

Research Methods Workshop (year 2 and full-time only)

MODULE 2: PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL LAW (30 CREDITS)

You will gain knowledge of key principles, cases and statutes in medical law. This will enable you to critique aspects of medical law and to apply your knowledge of the law to practices in medicine and healthcare. It will also provide you with a practical understanding of the norms and conventions of academic argument and writing in medical law.

Topics covered typically include:

introduction to law
use of cases and statutes
healthcare law and the concept of health
regulation and self-regulation in the healthcare system
law and consent
capacity
professional negligence
mental health law
confidentiality and the law
the relationship between law and morality
writing law essays
legal arguments and referencing

MODULE 3: LIFE, DEATH AND THE HUMAN BODY - SEMESTER 2 (30 CREDITS)

This module enables students to extend their knowledge of ethical and legal concepts, principles and theories, especially those relating to the moral and legal status of persons and human bodies and the value and boundaries of human life, and to apply such principles to practical issues in healthcare and medicine including intervention at the beginning and end of life and modification of the human body.

Topics covered typically include:

abortion: ethical and legal issues
regulating reproduction
selective reproduction and saviour siblings
euthanasia: ethical issues
death, dying and the law
advance directives
post mortem organ transplant
treatment of intersex children
transgender, medicine and the law
assignment guidance and feedback

MODULE 4: HEALTHCARE, JUSTICE AND SOCIETY (SEMESTER 2, 30 CREDITS)

This module enables students to apply and extend their knowledge of ethical and legal concepts, principles and theories in the context of practical issues in healthcare affecting the relations between healthcare practitioners, patients and wider society, and to acquire knowledge and critical understanding of a range of contemporary ethical and legal controversies surrounding a range of such issues.

Topics covered typically include:

biomedical research ethics and law
ethical issues in bio-banking
ethical issues in stem cell policy
criminal regulation of medicine
conscientious objection in healthcare
healthcare and international law
ethics and law of healthcare resource allocation.

The module also includes guidance for part-time students on progression to the dissertation stage.

Dissertation

DISSERTATION (60 CREDITS)

The dissertation offers the opportunity to develop basic research skills to the level at which a competent piece of work at Masters level can be undertaken.
You will choose your dissertation topic, which usually falls within the broad area of the ethics of cancer and palliative care. Some may start the course with a clear idea about what they want to write about - often an ethical issue from within their own practice - but others find and develop particular interests as the course progresses.

Recent dissertation topics have included:

"Do Not Resuscitate" orders;
Patient autonomy and end-of-life decisions;
Withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment;
Futility and ethical issues;
Truth telling and deception
Terminal sedation;
Euthanasia / assisting in bringing about death;
Concepts of a good death;
The doctrine of double effect;
The acts/omissions doctrine;
Screening programmes;
Resource allocation and palliative care;
Ethical issues in considering faith and spirituality

If there is a particular area you wish to write about, and would like to discuss this prior to applying for the course, please contact us.

Assessment

Each of the four taught modules is assessed through a 5,000-word essay. The essay question is chosen from a list reflecting the main themes of the module, enabling you to focus on the issues that are most interestingor relevant to your work. For each essay, you may submit a plan on which feedback is provided. In addition, you will receive written feedback on each of your essays. This approach aims at helping you to improve your performance as you progress through the programme.
For the dissertation module, you will be allocated a supervisor to provide support and advice during the writing process, and attend a one-day Research Methods Workshop in Semester 1.