Skip to main content

MA in Medical Ethics and Law

Pathway diagram for MA Medical Ethics and Law

The convenor for this programme is Dr Tom Walker (tom.walker@qub.ac.uk) who can be contacted for further information.

The MA in Medical Ethics and Law gives students the opportunity for in-depth engagement with core issues and debates in contemporary medical ethics and law. These debates arise from the experience of those working in healthcare and from continuing developments in this field. Because of this the programme is focused on a range of topics that reflect some of the main ethical and legal dilemmas faced by those working in medicine today. These include questions that arise when providing medical treatment to people at different stages of their life, including children and those at the end of life; the ethical and legal dimensions of introducing innovatory treatments and techniques; and ethical and legal issues that arise in the context of policies to promote and protect public health.

The programme has been designed to make it accessible both to those currently working in healthcare (whether in the UK, Ireland, or further afield) and to those who have recently completed their undergraduate studies. All students will take six taught modules and then complete the MA by writing a dissertation. The taught modules will be delivered in short intense teaching blocks each lasting three days, and these teaching blocks are the only times when attendance at the University is required. Between these blocks contact between the teaching staff and students will be maintained by the use of innovative on-line teaching methods. Teaching is provided primarily by the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, in collaboration by colleagues in the School of Law.

The modules that make up this MA programme are:

Principles for medical ethics and law

This module aims to introduce students to the main theoretical concepts used when dealing with questions in medical ethics, including autonomy, harm and justice. The first part of the module examines the extent to which analysis of these ideas provides support for requirements to obtain consent and to care for patient’s wellbeing, and the ways in which these requirements can come into conflict. This will lay the foundation for work in other modules in the course. The second part of the module examines debates about how to conceptualise both the relationship between law and ethics, and the role of codes of professional practice in medicine.

Methods in law and ethics

This module provides an introduction to the methods used in carrying out work in ethics and law at Master’s level. It is intended to provide training in research skills that are appropriate to those working in these disciplines and to prepare students for the dissertation. Given that students on the course may have little previous academic background in philosophy and/ or law it will also provide an introduction to work in these disciplines. Topics to be covered include: analyzing ethical arguments, working with statutes/ legal cases, developing appropriate writing styles, effective use of time spent researching and working with their research supervisor, efficient use of information resources including both the library and on-line resources, selecting a research question, planning research for the dissertation, and structuring written work in ethics and law.

Healthcare ethics and law in relation to families and children

Particular ethical and legal questions arise when providing healthcare to children. This module critically examines the ways in which ideas of autonomy, consent, and wellbeing are applied in this area. Topics to be covered include the idea of the child’s best interests and whether this is an appropriate standard for healthcare providers to aim for, how a child’s interests are to be determined, the role of parental consent, the legal and ethical issues that arise when parents and medical staff disagree about what is in a child’s interests, and the question of what weight (if any) should be given to a child’s own views about potential treatment.

Medicine and Innovation: Ethical and legal issue

Whilst the introduction of new medical interventions can provide considerable benefit, their introduction also raises a range of ethical and legal issues. These are the focus of this module. Over the course of the module students will critically engage with questions about the nature of risk and how this should be assessed, whether the precautionary principle is appropriate when dealing with new medical technologies, the extent to which patients can adequately consent to treatment where there is little knowledge of its long term effects, and questions about what justice requires when it comes to the introduction of new drugs or medical technologies. This module will also introduce students to related issues that arise in relation to medical research, and the implications of this both for what types of research are ethically permissible, and for the types of research that should be being carried out.

Ethical and Legal issues at the end of life

This module will critically explore ethical questions that arise when dealing with patients at the end of life. The first half of the module will draw on philosophical work on the distinction between doing and allowing to address debates about whether there is a morally relevant difference between killing and letting die, and the practical implications of this for questions about withholding or withdrawing treatment. Building on this it will also consider the ethics of physician assisted suicide, The second part of the module critically examines the limits of autonomy and role of consent when dealing with those whose ill health affects their ability to understand and deliberate along with the practical implications of loss of autonomy for decisions about what treatment it is ethically permissible to provide. It will also introduce students to contemporary debates about the nature of personal identity as a way to address the role that should be given to a patient’s previously declared wishes either to have or refuse treatment.

Public health, justice and prioritization in healthcare

This module explores the legal and ethical issues that occur within public health. The first half of the module will examine the various ways in which preparedness for potential epidemics might be increased, and the steps that might be taken to prevent ill health. These include vaccination against infectious diseases, regulation of behaviour to prevent the spread of infection in the face of an outbreak, and steps to change the behaviour of those who act in ways that risk their own health or that of others. The focus will be on the ethical and legal issues that arise in relation to these types of intervention, concentrating on the conflict between individual liberty and public good. The second part of the module focuses on the distribution of resources in the light of the growing demand for healthcare, and our increasing ability to treat different illnesses. In practice decisions need to be made about who to treat, and about who to treat first. The module will introduce students to contemporary work on justice and health as a way to critically analyse questions about how healthcare should be distributed. Students will engage with questions about whether we should focus on maximizing benefits or on the distribution of benefits, the extent to which (if at all) health care decisions should prioritise the young over the old, the role of the rule of rescue, and the issue of who should make decisions about priorities in healthcare.

Dissertation

Building on the skills gained in the Methods in law and ethic module and the other taught modules in the course, MA students will research and write a 15,000 word dissertation on a topic in medical ethics or law. The topic to be agreed with their dissertation supervisors.