Biolaw: Regulating emerging health technologies

This book aims to help modernise and future-proof the Medical Law and Ethics curriculum by focusing on emerging biotechnology changes and the challenges and opportunities they create for society and law. In many ways the development of new medical technologies are changing the very nature of well understood interactions – where face-to-face patient and health care practitioner consultations can be replaced with online test kits, apps and emailed reports – this is a fundamental shift and one that the regulatory legal landscape has to adapt to.

This book provides key clear and accessible content to help students understand emerging areas of biotechnology (such as genome editing and direct-to-consumer genetic testing and artificial wombs) whilst also providing the opportunity through the activities provided to analyse and apply key concepts and developments in these fields. It also aims to help equip future lawyers with the analytical skills and tool kit to understand how regulation can respond to emerging technologies – something any budding lawyer will likely have to face in their work in the coming years.

Each chapter will explain key concepts and then provide a series of activities and practical tasks/debates to undertake (in class or individually) to encourage students to consider what the law can do to regulate such emerging technologies and what the options are.