Over the last quarter of a century, the fields of medical ethics and of legal issues related to medical practice have rapidly developed for a number of reasons. Firstly, the provision of healthcare nowadays is based on a complicated partnership between healthcare providers, patients, administrators and organizations responsible for providing finance; this complicated partnership frequently results in clashes of views, opinions, and priorities, which have a major ethical and legal dimension. Secondly, a major event of the 21st century is the development of multicultural societies; healthcare-related decisions thus have to be made on the background of so many different ethnicities, religions, cultures and languages, resulting in a great spectrum of ethical and legal implications. Thirdly, in the modern world, people are more mobile and can easily and cost-effectively seek treatment outside of their country of origin or residence, which raises many ethical and legal issues. Lastly, the development of new medical specialties, modern and advanced treatments for very challenging patients, and the introduction of new technologies in medical practice have dramatically broadened the spectrum of ethical and legal issues related to medical practice. This book will therefore aim to cover in detail general principles and specific issues related to the ethical and legal dimensions of modern surgical practice.
Nadey Hakim is the Surgical Director West London Transplant Unit at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He is an Emeritus Editor of International Surgery (2011 to date) and sits on the Editorial Board of
Transplantation Proceedings, Graft, Experimental and Clinical Transplantation. He is The Max Thorek Professor of Surgery, an Adjunct Professor of Transplantation Surgery at Imperial College London and was awarded the 2007 J Wesley Alexander Transplantation Award for outstanding research in the field of transplantation. He has been a tutor at the London School of Surgery Transplants since 2008 and is the current Vice President of the Royal Society of Medicine (2014–2016).
Miran Epstein received his MD in 1987 from the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. He received his MA and PhD in history and philosophy of science, both with distinction, in 1996 and 2004, respectively, from the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University. He has published extensively on a wide spectrum of issues in medical ethics. He is currently Reader in Medical Ethics at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London.
Vassilios Papalois is an Adjunct Professor of Transplantation Surgery and Consultant Transplant and General Surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. His main clinical interests are high risk live donor kidney transplantation and extended criteria deceased donor kidney and pancreas transplantation. His research work include pre-transplant graft pre-conditioning through machine organ perfusion, use of stem cells to re-generate chronically scarred allografts and issues related to clinical ethics and health policy. He has has been awarded a Bronze National Award for Clinical Excellence by the UK Department of Health, a Senior Clinical Investigator Award by ESOT and a Teaching Excellence Award by Imperial College.
