The traditional Hippocratic Oath sworn by generations of doctors requires the physician to -prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone.- The patient's views as to what constituted her -good- did not have to be canvassed. Like many hitherto unexamined aspects of Irish society, the relationship between doctor and patient has been re-evaluated in recent years. In theory, at least, we now live in a society where the patient, and not the doctor, knows best, where an individual's consent is a fundamental prerequisite for any...

The Irish health system is confronted by a range of challenges, both emerging and recurring. This collection provides a foundation for ongoing engagement with selected issues in contemporary Irish health contexts. It includes contributions from scholars and practitioners across a range of disciplines. The essays are theoretically informed and are grounded in the realities of the Irish health system, by drawing on contributors' contextual knowledge.
The focus of the collection is interdisciplinary and the essays are situated at the intersection between ethics, law, medicine and policy. It...

This analysis of the law's approach to healthcare decision-making critiques its liberal foundations in respect of three categories of people: adults with capacity, adults without capacity and adults who are subject to mental health legislation. Focusing primarily on the law in England and Wales, the analysis also draws on the law in the United States, legal positions in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Scotland and on the human rights protections provided by the ECHR and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Having identified the limitations of a legal view of...