• Offered for Year: 2022/23

• Module Leader(s): Dr Ilke Turkmendag
• Lecturer: Dr Emilia Mickiewicz, Dr Nigel Cooper

• Owning School: Newcastle Law School
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Aims

This module aims to foster an understanding of medical and legal issues affecting medical practice and an appreciation of the influence of each discipline on the other. It examines the relationship between law and medicine, exploring how these disciplines influence each other in the medico-legal context. As such, there are two streams to the course: a legal and a medical stream.

The legal stream accounts for two thirds of the course and comprises of six topics which are taught by multiple lecturers and broadly focus on the relationship between law, medicine and ethics in medico-legal decision-making and the regulation of this decision making process. It examines the body of laws concerning the rights and responsibilities of medical professionals and their patients in a number of specific areas. It highlights the ethical dilemmas which practitioners, the executive and other policy makers, the legislature and the judiciary face and explores the role of law in resolving these issues. Key topics examined include: the role of medical ethics in decision-making, and the ethical principles that are followed by the medical practitioners, including the balance between individual and community interests and conflicting ethical principles across specific areas; resource allocation in the National Health Service and its implications for decision-making; the role of paternalism and individual autonomy in the doctor-patient relationship, and the regulation of contentious issues such as information disclosure in the context of the doctor-patient relationship; reproductive autonomy and regulatory framework that regulates the human reproduction (including termination of pregnancies, assisted conception technologies, surrogacy) along with New Genetics (including embryo research, embryo selection and screening, mitochondrial replacement techniques, and germline editing).

The medical stream makes up one third of the course and will be delivered by Dr Nigel Cooper (Forensic Pathologist). This branch will introduce the necessary basic medical knowledge and goes on to consider forensic medicine, extending to interpretation of injuries and explanation of causes of death in both natural and other circumstances. There will also be a workshop in the medical school during which models and specimens will be used to help explain the two most complex areas of the course; namely the effects of injury and head injuries.

Outline Of Syllabus

Legal stream:


*Introduction to Medical Law and Ethics
*Allocation of Resources in NHS and Legal challenges to rationing of health care resources
*Consent and Mental Capacity
*Reproductive Medicine and the Law:
- Abortion
- Assisted Conception
- Surrogacy
*New Genetics



Medical Stream:

*Skin Injuries – in assaults, accidents and self-infliction. 2
*Injuries to different regions of the body 2
*The Effects of Injury 2
*Cars and Firearms 2
*Sexual Offences/Child Abuse 2
*Heat, Fire and Electricity 2
*Asphyxia – suffocation, strangulation etc. 2
*Drugs and Alcohol – as relevant to criminal law 2
*Suspicious Death – investigation with an emphasis on the limitations of medical science. 2

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures: The use of lecturing as the primary mode of teaching is justified by the technical nature of the subject and the broad range of material covered within law, policy, ethics, and other literature. Lectures are important in introducing the subject areas, complex moral theories and legal concepts, provide the essential aspects of the topic including an introduction to the academic debate surrounding the topic in order to give students a focus in their reading, provide the points of reference and initiate a critical perspective for further development by each student during independent study. There will be 26 one-hour lectures.


Seminars/workshops: These are student-led activities. There will be 3 seminars in legal stream and 1 workshop in medical stream. These will provide opportunity for interaction, questions and answers, and exam preparation. The seminars and workshop serve to provide learning opportunities for students to develop the subject specific and cognitive skills, particularly knowledge synthesis and problem-solving skills. There will be four one-hour small group classes (totalling four student activity hours), which will cover the four areas: Allocation of Sources, Consent and Capacity, Reproduction and the New Genetics, along with a workshop in medicine (this a 1 hour workshop on forensics). These classes will meet the knowledge and cognitive skills outcomes.


Structured guided learning: There will be 12 Multiple Choice Quizzes that students need to complete throughout the year. These are also treated as non-weighted formative assessment. The MCQs can be completed in up to 15 minutes. These MCQs will provide students with an opportunity to test their understanding of the content of the course with the provision of immediate formative feedback.


Online revision sessions: A two-hour long revision sessions to revisit the legal stream and prepare students for the assessment.


Online Q&A session: This surgery hour will be used to answer student questions (especially that were raised on the discussion boards) and give feedback.


Structured Research and Reading Activities: Guided activities will enhance student learning through the use of discussion boards. Students will be provided with questions raised on discussion boards in the past three years. They will work on the answers in their own time both to enhance their learning and for exam preparation. The students should expect to spend half an hour per semester.


Directed research and reading: It takes the form of directed study based on essential and recommended reading for the lecture topics in preparation for seminars (103 hours), as well as independent research to develop depth of knowledge and to enhance critical writing skills in preparing for the assessed coursework and examination (60 hours).

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Exams

Zero Weighted Pass/Fail Assessments

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The formative assessment is provided in the form of 12 MCQs that are structured around the lecture material and small-group classes, allowing students to test their knowledge of the law. These are non-weighted, and the number of correctly answered questions does not count to the final grade, but they are important for skill development. Overall, MCQ are as form of guided learning activity.

Summative assessment is a written exam by the end of second semester. Students will be required to answer three questions in total from a choice of six: one from the Medical stream from a choice of two, and two from the legal stream from a choice of four. The medium is particularly suitable for assessing problem solving skills and allows students to demonstrate intended learning outcomes across a broad range of topics within the syllabus.

Reading Lists

• LAW3024's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• LAW3024's Timetable