Legal Medicine

A collection of essays on the social history of legal medicine including case studies on infanticide, abortion, coroners' inquests and criminal insanity.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this convenient volume provides comprehensive analysis of the law affecting the physician-patient relationship in Canada. Cutting across the traditional compartments with which lawyers are familiar, medical law is concerned with issues arising from this relationship, and not with the many wider juridical relations involved in the broader field of health care law. After a general introduction, the book systematically describes law related to the medical profession, proceeding from training, licensing, and other aspects of access to the profession, through disciplinary and professional liability and medical ethics considerations and quality assurance, to such aspects of the physician-patient relationship as rights and duties of physicians and patients, consent, privacy, and access to medical records. Also covered are specific issues such as organ transplants, human medical research, abortion, and euthanasia, as well as matters dealing with the physician in relation to other health care providers, health care insurance, and the health care system. Succinct and practical, this book will prove to be of great value to professional organizations of physicians, nurses, hospitals, and relevant government agencies. Lawyers representing parties with interests in Canada will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its comparative value as a contribution to the study of medical law in the international context.

This is a comprehensive reference text that examines the current state of Legal Medicine, which encompasses Forensic Medicine, in the 21st century. It examines the scope of both legal and forensic medicine, its application and study and has adopted a wide ranging approach including multinational authorship. It reviews the differences between and similarities of forensic and legal medicine, the need for academic qualification, the applications to many and varied fields including international aid, military medicine, health law and the application of medical knowledge to both criminal law and tort/civil law, sports medicine and law, gender and age related factors from obstetrics through to geriatrics and palliative care as well as cultural differences exploring the Christian/Judeo approach compared with that within Islamic cultures, Buddhism and Hinduism. The book looks at practical applications of legal medicine within various international and intercultural frameworks. This is a seminal authoritative text in legal and forensic medicine. It has a multi-author and multinational approach which crosses national boundaries. There is a great interest in the development of health law and legal medicine institutes around the world and this text comes in on the ground floor of this burgeoning discipline and provides the foundation text for many courses, both undergraduate and postgraduate. It defines the place of legal medicine as a specialized discipline.​

Regarded as the citable treatise in the field, "Legal Medicine" explores and illustrates the legal implications of medical practice and the special legal issues arising from managed care. This updated edition features comprehensive discussions on a myriad of legal issues that health care professionals face every day. It includes 20 brand-new chapters that address the hottest topics in the field today and also serves as the syllabus for the Board Review Course of the American Board of Legal Medicine (ABLM).

This multi-author, multinational book has provided a source of information about the forensic aspects of medicine and related fields for those currently involved in the clinical and pathologic aspects of health care, forensic assessment, investigation and diagnosis for victims, assailants and others involved in police or judicial systems.

A comprehensive and accessible resource covering all aspects of forensic and legal medicine. The text provides a foundation for those working in both the clinical and forensic aspects of care and will also be an asset to those involved in the police or judicial systems. Including clear guidelines for practical applications, and further enhanced by its many illustrations and case examples, this text is a valuable resource in an increasingly complex field. The authoritative work is writtenn by those who have extensive experience for a wide audience including, but not limited to, forensic pathologists, general pathologists, pediatric pathologists, forensic physicians, forensic scientists, coroners, emergency department physicians, judges and legal practitioners.

Causation is an issue that is fundamental in both law and medicine, as well as the interface between the two disciplines. It is vital for the resolution of a great many disputes in court concerning personal injuries, medical negligence, criminal law and coronial issues, as well as in the provision of both diagnoses and treatment in medicine. This book offers a vital analysis of issues such as causation in law and medicine, issues of causal responsibility, agency and harm in criminal law, causation in forensic medicine, scientific and statistical approaches to causation, proof of cause, influence and effect, and causal responsibility in tort law. Including contributions from a number of distinguished doctors, lawyers and scientists, it will be of great interest and value to academics and practitioners alike.