Disputes and Dilemmas in Health Law contains lively analyses of controversial and cutting-edge problems at the interface between health, law, and bioethics. It deals with a set of difficult issues for the law and health professions as they grapple with new technologies, changing legislation, and altering community expectations.

Regulatory processes for medicine and all of the health professions are in flux. Civil liability for medical negligence has been fundamentally changed in the aftermath of Australia's "insurance crisis." Confidentiality is changing, as remarkable numbers of persons and entities have access to our health information. The role of coroners is being fiercely debated, and legislation for inquest processes is increasingly being amended. With technologies changing how we view our bodies and even death itself, tough ethical and legal questions are being asked about property in human tissue and the genetics revolution.

Public health law and therapeutic jurisprudence are providing new lenses through which to view health rights and court processes. Law reform is making major changes to the way in which expert evidence is put before the courts in personal injury and malpractice actions. Difficult cases in relation to psychiatric injury and wrongful life are pushing compensability to its edge.

Disputes and Dilemmas in Health Law will challenge, confront, and inform. It revisits long-term controversies such as abortion from a modern perspective and analyses a range of emerging issues in reproductive law. It provides a vital basis for contemporary debate.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: Disputes and Dilemmas in Health Law: An Overview - Ian Freckelton and Kerry Petersen

PART TWO: ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS AND DILEMMAS
CHAPTER 2: Moral frameworks in health care: An introduction to ethics - Ian Kerridge, John McPhee, Chris Jordens and Georgina C. Clark
CHAPTER 3: Advance directives: Disputes and dilemmas - Cameron Stewart
CHAPTER 4: Competency issues for young persons and older persons - John Devereux and Malcolm Parker

PART THREE: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THERAPEUTIC JURISPRUDENCE
CHAPTER 5: Human rights, health rights and the jurisprudence of public health law - Penny Weller
CHAPTER 6: Mental health law and therapeutic jurisprudence - Kate Diesfeld and Ian Freckelton

PART FOUR: PUBLIC HEALTH
CHAPTER 7: New directions in public health law - Chris Reynolds
CHAPTER 8: Mad cows and prisons: Legal, ethical and operational challenges in responding to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and variant CJD - Roger S. Magnusson
CHAPTER 9: International trade agreements and the practice of medicine - Thomas Alured Faunce

PART FIVE: REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
CHAPTER 10: Old technologies and new challenges: Assisted reproduction and its regulation - Helen Szoke, Lexi Neame and Louise Johnson
CHAPTER 11: Genetic technologies and ART: Ethical values, legal regulation and informal regulation - Kerry Petersen
CHAPTER 12: The regulation of cloning and stem cell research - Donald Chalmers

PART SIX: RESEARCH AND VULNERABILITY
CHAPTER 13: Genetic research and commercialisation - Diane Nicol
CHAPTER 14: Current issues in gene patenting - Anne Rees and Brian Opeskin

PART SEVEN: THE SEQUELAE OF THE END OF LIFE
CHAPTER 15: The evolving institution of Coroner - Ian Freckelton and David Ransom
CHAPTER 16: Disposing of the Dead: Objectivity, subjectivity and identity - Rosalind F. Croucher
CHAPTER 17: Organ donation and transplantation in Australia - Peter Saul, John McPhee and Ian Kerridge
CHAPTER 18: Arbitrating "end-of-life" decisions: Issues, processes and the role of the law - Danuta Mendelson and Michael Ashby

PART EIGHT: LITIGATION AND LIABILITY
CHAPTER 19: Life after the Ipp Reforms: Medical negligence law - Belinda Bennett and Ian Freckelton
CHAPTER 20: Doctors and forensic expertise - Ian Freckelton
CHAPTER 21: Judicial activism or "traditional" negligence law? Conception, pregnancy and denial of reproductive choice - Reg Graycar
CHAPTER 22: Dilemmas in obstetrics and midwifery - John Seymour
CHAPTER 23: Nurses as defendants: Emerging risks - Kim Forrester

PART NINE: REGULATION
CHAPTER 24: Regulation of health practitioners - Ian Freckelton
CHAPTER 25: Health systems, quality control and corporatisation: New challenges for accountability - Beth Wilson
CHAPTER 26: Vulnerability in research - George F. Tomossy

PART TEN: INFORMATION, PRIVACY, AND CONFIDENTIALITY
CHAPTER 27: Re-thinking confidentiality - Marilyn McMahon
CHAPTER 28: Privacy issues, HealthConnect and beyond - Livia Iacovino, Danuta Mendelson and Moira Paterson
CHAPTER 29: Genetic privacy, discrimination and insurance - Loane Skene and Margaret Otlowski
CHAPTER 30: Record creation and access: the impact of legislative changes - Angela Palombo

Select Bibliography
Index

"A great reference book for anyone interested in health law in Australia."

-- Belinda Bennett, Director, Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics, University of Sydney, Australia