Medical Ethics & Law

Course detail Description

Our Medical Ethics & Law course is designed for medical/legal professionals, graduates of a relevant discipline, those going on to research and for anyone wanting to think about some of the hardest human decisions.

You will study the ethical and legal questions raised in the context of medicine, which include genetics, assisted reproduction, abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia, autism, psychiatric ethics and mental health law, medical research, organ donations and the allocation of scarce resources.

You will largely be taught through seminar-style teaching in sessions of two hours per module per week.

Full time students have an average of 6 seminar hours per week. However, this will vary depending on which modules you choose to take and in which semester they are taught. Full time students are expected to spend 32-34 hours engaged in self-study per week.

Part time students have an average of 2-4 hours of seminars per week. They are expected to engage in 14-16 hours of self-study a week.

Contact time is based on 24 academic weeks (typically there is 1 reading week per semester), whereas self-study time is based on 31 academic weeks.

The total notional study hours for the MA are 1800 (10 hours per 1 credit). Notional study hours comprise formal teaching and learning activities, such as lectures and tutorials, as well as assessments and independent research and study.

Assessment

Many modules are assessed by coursework, i.e. one essay, usually of a maximum of 3500 words. Some modules are assessed by one 2-hour exam.

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Structure

Year 1

Courses are divided into modules. All students will normally take modules totalling 180 credits.

Part-time students complete 60 credits of ethics modules in Year 1 and 60 credits of law modules as well as the dissertation in Year 2.

Courses are divded into modules. All students will normally take modules totalling 180 credits.

Students are required to take the following modules:

• Moral Theory and Medical Ethics (20 credits)

• Medical Law I (20 credits)

• Dissertation (60 credits)

In addition, students are required to take 80 credits from a range of optional modules , of which 40 credits must be ethics and 40 credits must be law. These may typically include:

• Ethics at the End of Life (20 credits)

• Topics in Medical Ethics I and II (20 credits each)

• Mental Health Ethics (20 credits)

• Criminal Law and Mental Disorder: Doctrine and Philosophy (20 credits)

• Mental Health Law: The Civil Context (20 credits)

• Medical Law II: Negligence and Misadventure (20 credits)

• Topics in Medical Law I and II (20 credits)

• Law at the End of Life (20 credits)

• Law at the End of Life I: Assisted Dying (20 credits)

• Law at the End of Life II: End of Life Decision-Making (20 credits)

• Law and Reproduction (20 credits)