Medical Law Dissertation

[nicpic]

I am a Second year law student and have decided to do my final year dissertation on a topic to do with Medical Law.
I am interested in the issue of consent, particularly since the introduction of the Mental Capacity Act has come into force.
Does anybody have any ideas of what i could focus my study on as it has to be quite specific?
Many thanks

[Joe_the_Lion]

Know nothing about medical law but as a very small side line you could mention the use of consent to discredit an assault.

Examples that spring to mind are Queensbury Rules in boxing. It is OK for two 18 stone men to punch eachothers heads really hard, but if one of them kicks, then it is assault.

Also, and I forget the name of the case, there is a rather sordid S and M case where two consenting homosexual adults undertook quite barbaric acts of sexual torture on eachother, totally consensual. However, their antics were filmed and discovered. They were both taken to court for GBH with intent even though there were no reporting victims as such. I think they were nailing their testicles to wooden tables or something equally as fun.

I am sure somebody with a better memory than may may be able to quote the case.

[Gmcd01]

R v Brown, resulting in Brown's 9 exceptions. However, lawful chastisement has been distinctly diluted now. It is slightly off topic. I chose not to study medical law so I can't really help any further sorry.

[Joe_the_Lion]

I think R v Brown was a hetro couple where he set fire to her boobs for pleasure. Similar case.

[Gmcd01]

There's probably more than one Brown, but I'm 99% sure I'm correct :-)

[Gmcd01]

Full citation for you:
R v Brown and other appeals [1992] QB 491
I kind of feel bad that we haven't really answered the poor person's question. Apologies for that!

[Eve]

I did medical law and did my dissertation on Gillick (innocent autonomy of minors), Re A was also a popular one (maybe too popular though) when I was doing my law degree, the conjoined twins case. Not really consent though. Other poplular issues then seemed to be the Bland case and right to die debate.

Brown could be interesting but I could never bring myself to read the details of all the torture and such that went on, a few details was enough for me! We studied that in a criminal context though.

One of the interesting ones recently is the Natallie Evans case about the frozen embryo's and consent issues there. That could be quite topical.

If you want to focus on the MCA then if there's a local law firm which does Court of Protection work they may be able to give you some tips.