Law and Healing: A History of a Stormy Marriage

Exploring key aspects in the history of law's engagement with healthcare in England, Law and healing unearths fascinating stories of the fractious relationship between the two, highlighting lessons for medical law and bioethics through a focus on their history. The popular view that the courts and legislators have from time immemorial consistently deferred to medical practitioners is shown to be wrong. The book examines the regulation of healers, the doctor/patient relationship, and law's response to battles for dominance between different sorts of healers. Healthcare in a broader sense than simply medical treatment is addressed. Considering historical perceptions of the human body at all life stages from the womb to the grave, the work identifies themes running through the history of how law responds to the problems generated by understanding of bodies and how science changes popular perceptions and law.