This interdisciplinary seminar will address legal and ethical issues arising in the practice of medicine. During the first meetings of the seminar, the instructors will orient the law students to the practice of medicine at the University, and to basic medical concepts pertinent to seminar topics. The following meetings will bring together residents, fellows and faculty from the various departments at the Medical School, including Neurology, Medicine, and Family Practice, to explore such issues as informed consent and capacity to consent to or refuse treatment (including life-sustaining treatment), ethical and legal challenges arising in managed care, prevention and acknowledgment of medical errors, the purpose and role of evidenced-based medicine in contemporary medical practice, regulation of research, and end-of-life issues such as the definition and implications of persistent vegetative state and the definition of death. Efforts will also be made to identify areas of divergence and convergence in professional norms in law and medicine.
Credits: 3