The relationship between medical law and good medical ethics
- Correspondence to Professor Emily Jackson, Department of Law, LSE, WC2A 2AE, London, UK; e.jackson{at}lse.ac.uk
- Received 20 August 2014
- Revised 7 October 2014
- Accepted 8 October 2014
Abstract
In the UK, medical ethics and law are often thought of and taught together, but while ‘good medical ethics’ is often reflected in law–the need to obtain a patient's adequately informed consent, for example—this is not necessarily the case. Sometimes medical ethics is more demanding than law; at other times, perhaps counterintuitively, the law appears to ask more of doctors than does good medical ethics.
