Exploitation, Ethics and Law (Biomedical Law and Ethics Library)

Focusing on a matter of continuing contemporary significance, this book is the first work to offer an in-depth exploration of exploitation in the doctor-patient relationship. It provides a theoretical analysis of the concept of exploitation, setting out exploitation’s essential elements within the authors’ account of wrongful exploitation. It then presents a contextual analysis of exploitation in the doctor-patient relationship, considering the dynamics of this fiduciary relationship, the significance of vulnerability, and the reasons why exploitation in this relationship is particularly wrongful. Two case studies – sexual exploitation and assisted dying – are employed to assess what the appropriate legal, ethical and regulatory responses to exploitation should be, to identify common themes regarding the doctor’s behaviour (such as the use of undue influence as a conduit through which to take advantage of and misuse patients), and to illustrate the effects of exploitation on patients. A recurring question addressed is how exploitation in the doctor-patient relationship is and should be dealt with by ethics, regulators and the law, and whether exploitation in this relationship is a special case.

The book provides a critical, interdisciplinary evaluation of exploitation in the doctor-patient relationship that will be of interest to health care lawyers, bioethicists, legal academics and practitioners, health care professionals and policymakers.

Suzanne Ost is Professor of Law at Lancaster University. Her publications on health care law and bioethics, and child sexual exploitation, include Medicine and Bioethics in the Theatre of the Criminal Process (with Margaret Brazier), and Child Pornography and Sexual Grooming: Legal and Societal Responses.

Hazel Biggs is Emeritus Professor of Healthcare Law and Bioethics at the University of Southampton, having retired in September 2020. Throughout her career, she published widely on the legal and ethical aspects of numerous areas of health care law and bioethics, including end of life care, medical research and human reproduction.