Religion, Medicine and the Law Biomedical Law and Ethics Library Series

Is the legal protection that is given to the expression of Abrahamic religious belief adequate or appropriate in the context of English medical law? This is the central question that is explored in this book, which develops a framework to support judges in the resolution of contentious cases that involve dissension between religious belief and medical law, developed from Alan Gewirth?s Principle of Generic Consistency (PGC).

This framework is applied to a number of medical law case studies: the principle of double effect, ritual male circumcision, female genital mutilation, Jehovah?s Witnesses (adults and children) who refuse blood transfusions, and conscientious objection of healthcare professionals to abortion. The book also examines the legal and religious contexts in which these contentious cases are arbitrated. It demonstrates how human rights law and the proposed framework can provide a gauge to measure competing rights and apply legitimate limits to the expression of religious belief, where appropriate. The book concludes with a stance of principled pragmatism, which finds that some aspects of current legal protections in English medical law require amendment.

Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Mode of Inquiry: An Indirect Application of the Principle of Generic Consistency; Chapter 3: The Religiously-Inspired Principle of Double Effect in English Medical Law; Chapter 4: Adult Jehovah’s Witnesses and Refusal of Blood Transfusions in English Medical law; Chapter 5: Children, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Refusal of Blood Transfusions; Chapter 6: Ritual male circumcision and the manifestation of religious belief in English Medical law; Chapter 7: Illegal Circumcision: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM); Chapter 8: Is Appropriate Protection given under English law to Conscientious Objection to Abortion?; Chapter 9: Conclusion;

Clayton Ó Néill is a Lecturer in Law at Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, UK. He has recently co-edited a book, entitled Global Patient Safety Law Policy and Practice (Routledge).