Ethical and Legal Debates in Irish Healthcare ─ Confronting Complexities

The Irish health system is confronted by a range of challenges, both emerging and recurring. In order to address these, it is essential that spaces are created for conversations around complex ethical and legal issues. This collection provides a foundation for ongoing engagement with selected issues in contemporary Irish health contexts. It includes contributions from scholars and practitioners across a range of disciplines, most particularly, ethics, law and medicine. The essays are theoretically informed and are grounded in the realities of the Irish health system, by drawing on contributors' contextual knowledge.

The focus of the collection is interdisciplinary and the essays are situated at the intersection between ethics, law, medicine and policy. Important issues addressed include admission to care homes; assisted suicide; adolescent decision-making; allocation of finite resources; children in clinical trials; conscientious objection; data protection; decision-making at the end of life; mental health; the rights of older people; organisational ethics; patient responsibilities; stem cell research; the role of carers; and reproductive health. From these discussions, the collection draws out the following interlinking themes: context and care; rights and responsibilities; regulating research; .and oversight of decision-making.

This book makes an informed and balanced contribution to academic and broader public discourse. It will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students in ethics, law and health and to those outside the academic sphere who must engage critically with the issues addressed.

Mary Donnelly is Senior Lecturer in Law at University College Cork

Claire Murray is Lecturer in Law at University College Cork