Healthcare professionals face an increasing threat of litigation from parties whom they have never met in their daily medical practice and who look nothing like the traditional patient. The so-called ’non-patient’ may take many forms”for example, a person who is injured or killed by a mentally-ill, physically-disabled or diseased patient; a wrongfully-accused parent in a child neglect/abuse case; or a local authority which is put to the expense of caring for a negligently-treated patient. This book explores the legal principles and conundrums which arise when determining a healthcare professional’s liability in negligence towards a wide variety of non-patients. The topic is assuming increasing legal importance and relevance, given the potential for many non-patient claims to give rise to class actions litigation, and in light of the legislative and human rights interventions, and the frequent appellate judicial consideration, which non-patient claims have attracted in recent times. The aim of the book is to have utility for both legal and medical professionals; for academics and students of comparative medical negligence and tort law; and for law reformers who may be interested in adopting certain features of statutory models elsewhere which pertain to some non-patient claims, such as those based upon ’Good Samaritan’ conduct. Important parallels or counterpoints from other common law jurisdictions, in which courts and commentators have grappled with the legal complexities of non-patient claims, are also discussed and critically analyzed.

As the ties between health care and legal practice multiply, interest in these interrelated fields grows and courses in law and medicine and in health law, as well as specialized courses in bioethics, medical malpractice, and health care organization and finance, have proliferated. A Health Law Reader complements the casebooks that are used most often in general and specialized health law courses by providing in-depth and interdisciplinary treatment of the most important issues addressed in those texts. In addition, teachers who are dissatisfied with a traditional case law approach may wish to use the Reader as a primary text for courses that focus on legal and policy analysis rather than on traditional case law analysis. A Health Law Reader is also an excellent and up-to-date volume for anyone interested in the field. Part I introduces students to the central normative disputes in bioethical theory and then examines particular problems that arise over the course of the life cycle. These problems arise in contexts that include assisted reproduction, abortion, genetic engineering, organ donation and physician-assisted suicide. In Part II of the Reader Robinson, Berry and McDonnell devote one chapter to comparative, political, and sociological perspectives on the American health care delivery system and one chapter to the history and theory of health care delivery in American. The last two chapters of the book address health care access, cost, and quality issues, with emphasis on the most hotly contested issues in current health care delivery and medical malpractice reform debates. "A 'best of' collection of a more focused nature, A Health Law Reader represents decades of work of the health care scholars who have contributed to our understanding and attempts to resolve many of the most difficult bioethical, policy, and legal issues confronting modern medicine and contemporary health care delivery." - The Journal of Legal Medicine

Containing details of over 300 cases, this book's approach to the law of medical negligence is to concentrate on the cases and the principle deriving from them. Part 1 gives an overview of the relevant principles of law; part 2 is drawn from decided cases, and part 3 reproduces statutory material.