This book provides healthcare and legal practitioners and students at all levels with the theory and practical application necessary to understand and apply bioethics, human rights and health law to their present and future work. The topics of bioethics, human rights and health law are part of the core curriculum for all students in Health Sciences in South Africa. Bioethics, Health Law and Human Rights: Principles and Practice, therefore, comes at no better time.

As the book is a guide, it does not deal exhaustively with the topics discussed. Instead, it aims to give healthcare and legal practitioners some general guidelines which it is hoped will be of practical use to them.

Key Benefits

• Core topics - such as practitioner-patient relationships, consent, confidentiality, justice and resource allocation 
• Case studies on key topics to apply the theory discussed
• A CD with pertinent international and local codes and declarations and relevant aspects of statutory law.

Part 1: Introduction to Bioethics, Human Rights and Health Law– Background

• Ethical concepts, theories and healthcare
• Codes of health care ethics
• Health and human rights
• Health law – the basics

Part 2: Specific Topics

• Professionalism and the healthcare practitioner–patient relationship
• Consent
• Confidentiality
• Medical malpractice and professional negligence
• Reproductive health
• Issues in genetics
• Use of human tissue
• End of life issues
• HIV and AIDS
• Resource allocation
• Business ethics – the healthcare context
• Human health and the environment
• The ethics of research

As this is a core aspect of all health sciences curricula, it is applicable for all undergraduate and postgraduate students including doctors, dentists and the allied health professionals. Medical practitioners will also find this text valuable. It is also recommended for students and practitioners of medical law.