scholarly journals Pater Knows Best: Withdrawal of Medical Treatment from Infants in Scotland

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 682-707
Author(s):  
Jonathan Brown ◽  
Sarah Christie
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Similar Case ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Medical Law ◽  
Withdrawal Of Treatment ◽  
Law And Ethics ◽  
Legal Context ◽  
Parens Patriae ◽  
Parental Autonomy ◽  
As If

Abstract The cases of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans placed the withdrawal of treatment from terminally ill infants at the forefront of medical law and ethics. In the medico-legal context, Scottish court procedures materially differ from those in England. This article considers these differences in light of the possibility that a similar case might soon be called before the Scottish courts. The Court of Session would then be required to consider whether to utilise its parens patriae jurisdiction to consent to the withdrawal of treatment as if it were the parent of the infant. The operation of this jurisdiction is such that the outcome of any Scottish case cannot be said to be certain, as the Scottish courts are bound to pay more heed to parental autonomy than their English counterparts do.

scholarly journals Wade in the Water …’: Rethinking Adoptees’ Stories of Reunion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Blake ◽  
Leigh Coombes ◽  
Mandy Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Married Couple ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Birth Certificates ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Legal Fiction ◽  
Legal Context ◽  
Birth Family ◽  
As If

n 1955, the Aotearoa/New Zealand government legislated the closed stranger adoption period. Approximately 80,000 children were constructed as a legal fiction when deemed as if born to a legally married couple. Birth family information was permanently sealed. Yet being raised in a fictional subject position and being denied access to any family of origin has consequences for all involved. After ten years of lobbying, the Adult Adoption Information Act (1985) came into effect. The power of that legislation was to overturn the strategies that suppressed adoptees’ rights to know details of their birth. Adult adoptees over the age of 20 years could access their original birth certificates, which provided a birth mother’s name. With this identifying information, reunions became possible. Birth family reunions involve a diverse range of experiences, reflecting the ways in which adoptees are contextually and historically produced. This paper reconsiders the identity implications of reunion stories using the theoretical concept of hybrid identity. The complexities of reunions are multiple, and adoptees negotiate their identities through being both born to and born as if and yet neither identity is safe. In the production of this hybrid story, it was possible to see the political and moral trajectories that enable and constrain a sense of self through the complexities of a legal context that produces binary subject positions.

The loved ones: families, intimates and patient autonomy

Legal Studies ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine O'Donovan ◽  
Roy Gilbar
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Patient Autonomy ◽  
Medical Law ◽  
Central Values ◽  
Patients Rights ◽  
Law And Ethics ◽  
The Family ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
The Individual

Patient autonomy is one of the central values in medical ethics. It is generally understood as recognition of patients' rights as free individuals answerable only to themselves. This emphasis on the individual leaves open the question of the position of the patients' ‘loved ones’, that is of families and significant others. The authors examine this question in three areas of law and medical ethics. Organ donation offers an example of preference given by medical ethics to family views, notwithstanding an expressed wish of the deceased to donate, and the legal position protecting such a request. Decisions concerning the treatment of incompetent patients illustrate consideration for the family in medical ethics, but hesitations in both law and ethics in accepting family views once expressed. And the tension between the interests of patients and family members over the access to genetic information usually results in respecting the patient's right to confidentiality. This individualistic perception of autonomy, as adopted by medical law, overlooks the patient's relationships with others and is too narrow to face the complexities of human lives.

Feminism, Ethics of Care, and Medical Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 26-45
Author(s):  
Jonathan Herring
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Ethics Of Care ◽  
Medical Law ◽  
Law And Ethics ◽  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter explores the nature of ethics of care, which has become a highly influential approach to ethical questions. It summarizes its intellectual history and provides a definition of the concept of care. It then sets out the main themes of the approach and considers some of the objections that have been raised to it. The chapter provides some examples of ways in which ethics of care could be used to resolve difficult issues that arise in medical law and ethics. It also explores other feminist approaches to bioethical issues and the significance of ethics of care for medical law.

Medical Law and Ethics

2020 ◽  
pp. 881-894
Author(s):  
Benjamin Glickstein ◽  
Michael Fertleman ◽  
Philip Howard
Keyword(s):  
Basic Science ◽  
Clinical Aspects ◽  
Medical Law ◽  
Law And Ethics

This chapter outlines the basic science and theory of medical law and ethics required for MRCP Part 1, before addressing the clinical aspects of medical law and ethics for MRCP Part 2. To ensure effective revision, material is presented in short sections with bullet lists, tables and boxes to highlight key facts.

The Relationship between Some Beliefs Held by Physicians and their Life-Prolonging Decisions

1974 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Degner
Keyword(s):  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Guttman Scale ◽  
Withdrawing Treatment ◽  
Terminally Ill Patients ◽  
Withdrawal Of Treatment ◽  
The Relationship

A Guttman scale was developed to elicit physicians' tendencies in regard to life-prolonging decisions. The great majority (79.4%) of the 92 physicians in the sample favored withdrawing treatment from terminally ill patients in at least two out of three imaginary situations. A comparison of the sample's life-prolonging decisions by their beliefs in God and afterlife yielded no significant differences. Comparison of the sample's life-prolonging decisions by their beliefs about death indicated that physicians who favored withdrawal of treatment from terminally ill patients viewed death more as a negative than as a neutral or positive phenomenon.

‘Doing’ Medical Law and Ethics

2022 ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Sharon Cowan ◽  
Emily Postan ◽  
Nayha Sethi
Keyword(s):  
Medical Law ◽  
Law And Ethics
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