Table of Contents

Emerging problems of medicine, technology, and the law; what is a medical decision?; the legal and ethical implications of postcoital birth control; a husband, a wife and an abortion; the doctor, the pill and the 15-year-old girl; the moral status of the embryo; ethics in clinical decision making - the care of the very-low-birth-weight baby; "R". v. "Arthur Reb" and the severely disabled new-born baby; the patient on the Clapham omnibus; the law and ethics of informed consent and randomized controlled trials; further thoughts on liability for non-observance of the Provisions of the Human Tissue Act 1961; the donation and transplantation of kidneys - should the law be changed?; transsexualism and single-sex marriage; the technological imperative and its application in health care; the check-out - a humane death?; the law relating to the treatment of the terminally ill; the legal effect of requests by the terminally ill and aged not to receive further treatment from doctors; switching off life-support machines - the legal implications.

Reviews

`Kennedy writes with flair, energy, and passion; and ... the genuine excitement that comes from grappling with an intelligent and uncompromising mind, pervades the whole book. ... It is to Ian Kennedy's credit that this book is both brilliant and respectable.' Times Higher Education Supplement
`a really riveting book' New Statesman and Society
`we are presented with a highly personal, elegant, at times amusing set of arguments on topics of great interest not just to lawyers and doctors but to a lay readership as well.' Times Literary Supplement
`All will ... benefit from reading his humane and robustly-argued pleas on matters of great public interest.'
Roy Porter, Medical History
`It is a delight to read such a scholarly, well-written, and important presentation of very difficult concepts in medical ethics and medical law. This book is highly recommended.' New England Journal of Medicine
`He writes extremely well and this very readable book makes it clear how important a good knowledge of biology is in the field of medical law. I found it fascinating.'
Michael Reiss, Institute of Biology
`engaging and well-written'
Bulletin of Medical Ethics
`A challenging book. Here is a book for the thinker, for the teacher of ethics.' Update
`Written in the first person, the essays have an integrity and honesty lacking in much academic writing. Kennedy's conversational style is engaging and solicitous. For instance, when he writes of Sidaway he is a perceptive and informed narrator explaining concisely and lucidly the issues involved ... his asides enliven and enrich the discussion. Occasionally, there is gracefulness and compassion ... he skilfully and rigorously employs the primary tools
of the common law; precedent and analogous reasoning ... These new essays show Kennedy continuing to stimulate and inform after almost twenty years of sustained publication. With the other fifteen essays,
the paperback charts an original and prodigious output. That courts and bioethicists still wrestle with the dilemmas and issues addressed by Kennedy renders this book an invaluable respository of analysis in the field of medical law and ethics.'
Medical Law International