The Law-Medicine Relation: A Philosophical Exploration

Section I / The Physician's and Researcher's Mandate from Society: Biomedical, Legal, and Ethical Considerations.- Introductory Comments.- Clinical Intuition: A Procedure for Balancing the Rights of Patients and the Responsibilities of Physicians.- Physicians and Society: Tribulations of Power and Responsibility.- Clinical Investigations in Developing Countries: Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Promotion of Research and the Protection of Human Rights.- Federal Regulation of Medicine and Biomedical Research: Power, Authority and Legitimacy.- Section II / Causation and Responsibility: Science, Medicine and the Law.- Causation and Responsibility: Medicine, Science and the Law.- Relevant Causes: Their Designation in Medicine and Law.- Time, Law and Responsibility: Additional Thoughts on Causality.- Section III / The Psychiatrist's Dilemma: Duty to Patient or Duty to Society?.- Psychotherapeutic Discretion and Judicial Decision: A Case of Enigmatic Justice.- The Morality of Involuntary Hospitalization.- Duty to the Patient or Society: Reflections on the Psychiatrist's Dilemma.- Section IV / Decision Making at the Beginning of Life: Medicine, Ethics and the Law.- The Bearing of Prognosis on the Ethics of Medicine: Congenital Anomalies, the Social Context and the Law.- Substantive Criteria and Procedures in Withholding Care from Defective Newborns.- Is Existence Ever an Injury?: The Wrongful Life Cases.- Wrongful Life: A Reply to Angela Holder.- Section V / Round Table Discussion - Legal Rights and Moral Responsibilities in the Health Care Process.- Physician, Patient and Malpractice: An Historical Perspective.- The Concept of a Right Ordering.- The Function of Legal Rights in the Health Care Setting.- The Child-Patient: Do Parents have the 'Right to Decide'?.- Legal Rights and Moral Responsibilities in the Health Care Process.- Closing Remarks.- Notes on Contributors.