Individual and population health is a matter of growing social concern. Achieving good health and delivering effective healthcare demands scientific, medical and policy innovation. A variety of fields have a role to play, including law and ethics.

As a student on this programme students will examine topics that reflect some of the main contemporary legal and ethical challenges faced by those working in healthcare and health research, and place them in their social and historical context. These include issues that arise in the context of genetics, assisted reproduction, abortion, standards of medical treatment, transplantation medicine, mental health, advance decisions, assisted suicide, health research, and the allocation of scarce resources.

University of Edinburgh offers students the opportunity to study the fundamentals of medical law and ethics, both international and domestic, at an advanced level, and the opportunity to take more specialized courses on issues of contemporary significance, encouraging and supporting the development of research skills necessary for a career in medical law or ethics.