Though more and more medical disputes are reaching the courts, English law still essentially allows doctors to set their own standards. Criticism of this stance, as of medical paternalism itself, centres on the denials of patients' rights. But the interest that patients have in their well-being should not be expressed exclusively through the assertion of rights. Unqualified self-determination and the moves towards contractualism in the restructured NHS may be detrimental to patient welfare. A collaborative apprach to medical care can offer distinctive therapeutic advantages as well as due respect for patient autonomy. Increasingly, patients wish to be involved in decisions about their treatment. In the key legal area of liability for negligence it would be consistent with legal principle, and with developments in other jurisdictions, to accord less weight to customary practice and more to patients' reasonable expectations. This book offers a sustained treatment of these issues, primarily as they arise in the hospital setting, but looking too at a range of therapies in different contexts. As such it provides a unique analysis of the central areas of medical law written in a fashion that will be appealing to anyone with an interest in medicine, health care and the law.

About the Author
Harvey Teff is a Doctor of the Middle Temple and a barrister.

Reviews
Medical practitioners concerned or downright worried about medical negligence would do well to consult Harvey Teff's Reasonable Care ... it offers important reading for legal scholars and for busy medical practitioners who ought to be aware of such landmark cases as Bolam, Alcock, Gold, Maynard, and Rogers v Whitaker as well as of the (changing attitude of the courts today ... extra-ordinarily well-written and well-researched ... he has a splendid grasp of this fast-changing uncertain medicolegal epoch - historically, politically, sociologically, and philosophically ...his arguments are persuasive, reasonable, and caring ... thanks to Teff's book, medical practitioners will have a healthy way of thinking about their profession and the law itself - maybe even about lawyers too. * The Lancet *
we can only be grateful to him for a thought-provoking, if expensive, contribution to a debate of potentially wide-ranging impact * Bulletin of Medical Ethics *
Medical practitioners concerned or downright worried about medical negligence would do well to consult Harvey Teff's Reasonable Care: Legal Perspectives on the Doctor/Patient Relationship. It offers important reading for legal scholars and for busy medical practitioners who ought to be aware of such landmark cases as Bolam, Alcock, Gold, Maynard, and Rogers Whitaker as well as of the (changing) attitude of the courts today ... extraordinarily well-written and well-researched ... he has a splendid grasp of this fast-changing, uncertain medicolegal epoch - historically, politically, sociologically, and philosophically ... His arguments are persuasive, reasonable, and caring ... Thanks to Teff's book, medical practitioners will have a healthy way of thinking about their profession and the law itself - maybe even about lawyers too. * The Lancet *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198255789
Author Harvey Teff
Format Hardback
Page Count 302
Imprint Clarendon Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 520g
Dimensions(mm) 223mm * 144mm * 23mm