Peter Macfarlane

Medical Law in the South Pacific Peter Macfarlane

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 the South Pacific. 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 the South Pacific 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.