MA Medical Ethics and Law in Keele United Kingdom | Keele University

Advances in medical treatments and technology, along with evolving societal perspectives, continuously reshape the legal and ethical landscape of healthcare, presenting significant challenges for professionals. With a hands-on approach and frequent updates to address emerging concerns—from pandemic responses to artificial intelligence in medicine—our MA program equips you to handle the intricate moral and legal dilemmas in healthcare planning, delivery, and medical research. For instance, when is it justified to share a patient's medical records to prevent the spread of illnesses like HIV? When should medical interventions to extend life cease? Should physicians ever disregard treatment refusals rooted in cultural, religious beliefs, or advance directives to preserve life?While a medical ethics course won't offer definitive solutions—given the vast array of questions and frequent lack of clear-cut answers—it empowers you to approach these issues thoughtfully, ethically, and with professional accountability.Through real-world examples, hypothetical situations, research findings, and shared insights, our MA familiarizes you with key concepts, theories, and frameworks—evaluating their strengths and limitations while equipping you with analytical tools to assess various ethical and legal positions. You'll also develop skills to articulate these arguments more effectively to others.By examining diverse scenarios with practical relevance, you'll learn to build, classify, and critique ethical reasoning, recognizing common logical pitfalls and argument flaws. Recent students, for example, analyzed the moral and legal debates from a 2021 High Court case regarding the Abortion Act 1967, questioning whether allowing late-term abortions for fetal conditions like Down Syndrome constituted discrimination under human rights law.Study DurationFull-time - 1 year, Part-time - 2 years, Flexible modular option - Up to 5 years