The law-medicine relation : a philosophical exploration : proceedings of the eighth Trans-disciplinary Symposium on Philosophy and Medicine, held at Farmington, Connecticut, November 9-11, 1978

This volume is a contribution to the continuing interaction between law and medicine. Problems arising from this interaction have been addressed, in part, by previous volumes in this series. In fact, one such problem constitutes the central focus of Volume 5, Mental Illness: Law and Public Policy [1]. The present volume joins other volumes in this series in offering an exploration and critical analysis of concepts and values underlying health care. In this volume, however, we look as well at some of the general questions occasioned by the law's relation with medicine. We do so out of a conviction that medi­ cine and the law must be understood as the human creations they are, reflect­ ing important, wide-ranging, but often unaddressed aspects of the nature of the human condition. It is only by such philosophical analysis of the nature of the conceptual foundations of the health care professions and of the legal profession that we will be able to judge whether these professions do indeed serve our best interests. Such philosophical explorations are required for the public policy decisions that will be pressed upon us through the increasing complexity of health care and of the law's response to new and changing circumstances. As a consequence, this volume attends as much to issues in public policy as in the law. The law is, after all, the creature of human deci­ sions concerning prudent public policy and basic human rights and goods. Front Matter....Pages i-xxx Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introductory Comments....Pages 3-4 Clinical Intuition: A Procedure for Balancing the Rights of Patients and the Responsibilities of Physicians....Pages 5-31 Physicians and Society: Tribulations of Power and Responsibility....Pages 33-52 Clinical Investigations in Developing Countries: Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Promotion of Research and the Protection of Human Rights....Pages 53-74 Federal Regulation of Medicine and Biomedical Research: Power, Authority, and Legitimacy....Pages 75-91 Front Matter....Pages 93-93 Causation and Responsibility: Medicine, Science and the Law....Pages 95-122 Relevant Causes: Their Designation in Medicine and Law....Pages 123-127 Time, Law and Responsibility: Additional Thoughts on Causality....Pages 129-136 Front Matter....Pages 137-137 Psychotherapeutic Discretion and Judicial Decision: A Case of Enigmatic Justice....Pages 139-157 The Morality of Involuntary Hospitalization....Pages 159-175 Duty to the Patient or Society: Reflections on the Psychiatrist’s Dilemma....Pages 177-186 Front Matter....Pages 187-187 The Bearing of Prognosis on the Ethics of Medicine: Congenital Anomalies, the Social Context and the Law....Pages 189-216 Substantive Criteria and Procedures in Withholding Care from Defective Newborns....Pages 217-224 Is Existence Ever an Injury?: The Wrongful Life Cases....Pages 225-239 Wrongful Life: A Reply to Angela Holder....Pages 241-252 Front Matter....Pages 253-253 Physician, Patient and Malpractice: An Historical Perspective....Pages 255-258 The Concept of a Right Ordering....Pages 259-264 The Function of Legal Rights in the Health Care Setting....Pages 265-269 The Child-Patient: Do Parents have the ‘Right to Decide’?....Pages 271-277 Legal Rights and Moral Responsibilities in the Health Care Process....Pages 279-283 Front Matter....Pages 253-253 Closing Remarks....Pages 285-286 Back Matter....Pages 287-293 Proceedings of the eighth trans-disciplinary symposium on philosophy and medicine held at Farmington, Connecticut, November 9-11,1978