Healthcare, Law and Ethics LLM (distance learning) (Taught)

This course will help you to gain an understanding of how law and ethics apply to the practice of healthcare professionals. It will give you an appreciation of relevant legal and ethical issues, terminology, sources of law and the ways in which law and ethics work in practice.

You can study at a time and place of your own choosing and at a pace that is comfortable for you. Most of our graduates have completed their studies while working full-time as healthcare professionals.

Some of the topics which are explored in this course include legal and ethical issues relating to:

patients’ consent to treatment
clinical negligence
patient confidentiality
abortion
genetic selection
maternal-fetal conflict
withdrawing and withholding treatment
euthanasia and assisted suicide
pharmaceutical product liability
the regulation of clinical drug trials
patient capacity and competence
the treatment of children
research and the incompetent patient
organ donation and
treating the mentally ill patient
Our focus is primarily on UK law, but as it may be studied by healthcare professionals who are based elsewhere, the course occasionally makes reference to materials from other jurisdictions, particularly the USA.