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Health Law and Human Rights (LAWS70451)

Graduate coursework level 7Points: 12.5Not available in 2021

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Overview

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This subject will be delivered online in 2020 over the scheduled dates.

This subject will address a range of human rights in the health law area, including bioethical origins of contemporary views of health rights; Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the role of the Special Rapporteur; rights to engage in health tourism; rights to life and death; rights to health information; rights to civil remedy and compensation for malpractice; rights to coronial investigation of deaths; rights to complain about registered practitioners; and public health law rights. Topical issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the human rights issues posed by it will be incorporated into the subject.

Principal topics include:

  • Bioethical and human rights to health
  • Rights to health
  • Rights to obtain health services overseas
  • Rights to health information
  • Rights to compensation for malpractice
  • Rights to death
  • Rights to death investigation
  • Rights to complaint and notification.

     

Intended learning outcomes

A student who has successfully completed this subject will have:



  • An advanced and integrated understanding of international and local human rights framework for provision of contemporary health services in Australia
  • Been an engaged participant in debates concerning human rights issues in relation to provision of treatment and entitlement to treatment
  • Awareness of law in relation to health privacy and critical incident review committee workings
  • Appreciation of patients’ entitlements to specific forms of medication, including medicinal cannabis
  • Awareness of entitlements and complexities in obtaining international health services
  • A detailed understanding of distinctions in relation to human rights issues between life and death
  • Understanding of the concept and repercussions of the body as property, in a variety of rights contexts including burial, cremation, organ donation and post-mortem reproduction
  • Sophisticated understanding of the relevance to the law of human rights in relation to the turning off of life support and physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia
  • Understanding of the law of no further resuscitation
  • Awareness of the role of the coroner as a decision-maker in relation to rights to autopsy, exhumation; inquests and decision-making about causes of death
  • Understanding of rights issues in coronial practices, findings, and recommendations
  • Understanding of rights issues in wrongful life, wrongful birth and wrongful death actions
  • An appreciation of rights issues in relation to the investigation and determination of complaints against registered and unregistered health practitioners.

Last updated: 12 November 2022