Anna Smajdor, Jonathan Herring and Robert Wheeler

Published by Oxford University Press

ISBN 978-0-19-965942-5

First edition published January 2022

Price £32.99

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/oxford-handbook-of-medical-ethics-and-law-9780199659425

Many of us are familiar with the excellent Oxford Handbook series and I personally am a big fan of this series. For those that don’t know, they are concise handbooks, though some are chunkier than others but highly clinically focussed and they are great for looking up and revising a topic quickly. Equally they are very useful for helping to manage a patient who you are directly dealing with. This book is similar to its other siblings in the Oxford Handbook series, maybe a little thinner than average (to me this is a plus as straight to the point) but the same dimensions and has the popular and hard-wearing vinyl covers. What sets it apart is for me, is this is one of the first ones in this series, that covers nonclinical (though relevant to clinical practice) topics.

However, that does not detract from this excellent book, it is superb and many doctors across many specialties and at different grades would appreciate access to it. It is only 366 pages long, including the index but it packs a lot of information, detail and support within its covers.

Ethical and legal issues are often intertwined with our daily work and yet, it is a topic area that many of us are not always too familiar with. Equally when such an issue crops up, we can be left not always knowing what to do and this is where this book can come to your aid. The ethics section has chapters on Consequentialism and Deontology and the chapters are short enough to read and learn more about these topics, the latter I suspect will apply to the majority of doctors. Other chapters are topics we might know a bit more about but there is still much to learn. These include negligence and liability whilst there is an important chapter on doctors and the General Medical Council (GMC).

A part of the book deals with statutory aspects of clinical care such as the Mental Health Act and Female Genital Mutilation act. On Page 210, there is a superb page devoted to “where to seek help with a clinical, legal or ethical question.” And every reader of this book should check out this page. Despite the daunting breadth of subject matter and sometimes difficult to understand legal wording sometimes found in other texts; this book is surprisingly easy to read and understand.  Impressively, there is plenty of subject matter that will interest a wide audience with chapters on medical research and medical education.

The chapters are not long and many doctors can easily read chapters relevant to their practice but some chapters will have interest to wide range of doctors. I have already mentioned the section on the GMC but Chapter 16 on candour and confidentiality is an important read for the vast majority of doctors.

This is a highly readable and understandable book on a topic (with a UK perspective) that does not seem to attract a lot of books and this book makes an impressive contribution to medical education. I suspect many doctors and healthcare professionals will benefit from reading multiple sections of this book. The best part is that it is easy to read and understand and highly relevant to modern clinical practice. Although not a big book (but I think that is one of its merits; short and to the point) it is also well priced and I think a rich addition to a personal or departmental library for a general healthcare audience.

Dr Harry Brown

8^th May 2022