Contemporary Issues in Healthcare Law (M6024)

15 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

On this module, you’ll explore a range of contemporary issues in healthcare law, focusing on how the law addresses key ethical and legal challenges. Topics vary, depending on current developments, but could include:

• parliament and the courts in healthcare regulation
• medically assisted reproduction and surrogacy
• the regulation of abortion and arguments for decriminalisation
• disputes over the medical treatment of children
• the use of human material
• legal regulation of assisted suicide
• the legality of cosmetic surgery
• provision of innovative treatments
• patient choice and autonomy
• effectiveness of professional self-regulation.

This module examines these issues in the context of their ethical, legal, and social implications.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 21 hours of contact time and about 129 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.