The Criminal Justice System and Health Care (Oxford Monographs on Criminal Law and Justice)

This book examines questions of medical accountability and ethics. It analyses how the criminal justice system regulates health care practice, and to what extent it can and should be used as a tool to resolve ethical conflict in health care. For most of the twentieth century, criminal courts were engaged in matters relating to medicine principally as a forum to resolve ethical controversies over the sanctity of life. However, the judiciary approached this function with reluctance and a marked tendency to defer to the medical profession to define what constituted ethical, and thus lawful, conduct. However, over the past 25 years, criminal courts have increasingly been drawn into these types of question, and the criminal law has become a major actor in the resolution of ethical conflict. The trend to prosecute for aberrant professional conduct or medical malpractice and the role of the criminal process in medicine has been analytically neglected in the UK. There is scant literature addressing the appropriate boundaries of the criminal process in resolving ethical conflict, the theoretical legal analysis of the law’s relationship with health care, or the practical impact of the criminal justice system on professionals and the delivery of health care in the UK. This volume addresses these issues via a combination of theoretical analyses and key case studies, drawing on the experiences of other carefully selected jurisdictions. It places a particular emphasis on the appropriateness of the involvement of the criminal justice system in health care, the limitations of this developing trend, and solutions to the problems it throws up. The book takes euthanasia as a primary example of the issues raised by the intersection of health care and the criminal law, and questions whether health care issues appropriately fall within the remit of the criminal justice system. This Collection Examines Questions Of Medical Accountability And Ethics. It Analyses How The Criminal Justice System Regulates Health Care Practice, And To What Extent It Is Appropriate To Use It As A Tool To Resolve Ethical Conflict In Health Care. An Ill-suited And Inappropriate Union? : Exploring The Relationship Between The Criminal Justice System And Health Care / Suzanne Ost And Charles A. Erin -- Criminalizing Medical Malpractice / Margaret Brazier And Neil Allen -- Medical Manslaughter : The Rise (and Replacement) Of A Contested Crime? / Oliver Quick -- Medical Or Managerial Manslaughter? / Neil Allen -- When Are Errors A Crime? : Lessons From New Zealand / Alan Forbes Merry -- Euthanasia And The Defence Of Necessity : Advocating A More Appropriate Legal Response / Suzanne Ost -- Criminal Law Is The Problem, Not The Solution / John Griffiths -- Lessons In Legal And Judicial Ethics From Schiavo : The Special Responsibilities Of Lawyers And Judges In Cases Involving Persons With Severe Cognitive Disabilities / Robert A. Destro -- Medical Treatment At The End Of Life-a British Doctor's Perspective / Michael Wilks -- Dignity : The Difference Between Abortion And Neonaticide For Severe Disability / Stephen W. Smith -- Terminating Life And Human Rights : The Fetus And The Neonate / Elizabeth Wicks -- Non-treatment Of Severely Disabled Newborns And Criminal Liability Under Spanish Law / Sergio Romeo-malanda -- Should We Criminalize Hiv Transmission? / Rebecca Bennett -- The Rightful Domain Of The Criminal Law / Charles A. Erin -- Medicalizing Crime-criminalizing Health? The Role Of Law / Jonathan Montgomery. Edited By Charles A. Erin And Suzanne Ost. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This book analyses how the criminal justice system regulates health care practice, and to what extent it can and should be used as a tool to resolve ethical conflict in health care. For most of the 20th century, the criminal courts were engaged in matters relating to medicine principally as a forum to resolve ethical controversies over the sanctity of life. However, the judiciary approached this function with reluctance, and a marked tendency to defer to the medical profession to define what constituted ethical, and thus lawful conduct. Over the past 25 years, the criminal law has increasingly been drawn into the fray, becoming a major actor in the resolution of ethical conflict. The trend to prosecute for aberrant professional conduct or medical malpractice and the role of the criminal process in medicine has been analytically neglected in the UK. There is scant literature addressing the appropriate boundaries of the criminal process in resolving ethical conflict, the theoretical legal analysis of the law's relationship with health care, or the practical impact of the criminal justice system on professionals and the delivery of health care in the UK. This volume addresses these issues via a combination of theoretical analyses and key case studies, drawing on the experiences of other carefully selected jurisdictions. It places a particular emphasis on the appropriateness of the involvement of the criminal justice system in health care, the limitations of this developing trend, and solutions to the problems it throws up Graeme Catto: Foreword Charles A. Erin & Suzanne Ost: Introduction 1: Margaret Brazier & Neil Allen: Criminalising Medical Malpractice 2: Oliver Quick: Medical Manslaughter: The Rise (and Replacement) of a Contested Crime? 3: Neil Allen: Medical or Managerial Manslaughter? 4: Alan Forbes Merry: When Are Errors a Crime? - Lessons from New Zealand 5: Suzanne Ost: Euthanasia and the Defence of Necessity: Advocating a More Appropriate Legal Response 6: John Griffiths: Criminal Law is the Problem, Not the Solution 7: Robert Destro: Lessons in Legal and Judicial Ethics from Schiavo: The Special Responsibilities of Lawyers and Judges in Cases Involving Persons with Severe Cognitive Disabilities 8: Michael Wilks: Assisted Dying Legislation: Ethical Dilemmas for Doctors 9: Elizabeth Wicks: Terminating Life and Human Rights: The Foetus and the Neonate 10: Stephen Smith: Dignity: The Difference between Abortion and Neonaticide for the Severely Disabled 11: Sergio Romeo-Malanda: Omission of Medical Treatment for Severely Disabled Newborns and Criminal Liability Under Spanish Law 12: Rebecca Bennett: Should We Criminalize HIV Transmission? 13: Charles A. Erin: The Rightful Domain of the Criminal Law 14: Jonathan Montgomery: Medicalising Crime? Criminalising Health?