Medical Law & Ethics (LAW051) 2022-23

Semester 1 Formative Assessment

Submission deadline: Submit your work to the dropbox on Canvas by Monday 21st
November 2pm.

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

Answer the following questions in no more than 1000 words.

QUESTION:

You are an in-house lawyer at an NHS Trust and have been asked for your opinion
on the case below. Draft a short report setting out your preliminary thoughts on the
legal issues presented in this case. Your report will be presented at a meeting of the
Trust’s legal department:

Winona, aged 70, has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her adult life. Winona
lives with Noah, her son. Noah took Winona to see a doctor because she was
complaining of severe abdominal pain and was losing weight. After preliminary
investigations and a referral to a consultant, the doctors believe Winona may have
stomach cancer. They recommend she undergoes some exploratory procedures,
namely a gastroscopy and biopsy. These procedures require sedation or a general
anaesthetic before they can take place. When these issues are discussed with
Winona, she refuses the exploratory procedures. Sometimes she does not accept
that she may have cancer, saying that the doctors ‘just want to use her for their
experiments.’ On other occasions, she says that she has seen enough of life, and
just wants to be left in peace now, not prodded and poked for the rest of her days.

Noah is worried about the risk of losing his mother and wants the doctors to get on
with the exploratory procedures.

Advise the medical team on whether the exploratory procedures (including physical
restraint if Winona resists) can proceed without Winona’s consent.

How would your advice differ if Winona were currently detained under the Mental
Health Act 1983?
Guidance

1. This work will constitute 5% of the module mark. There is a word limit of
1,000 words. The penalty in Law is a loss of 1% for every 100 words (or part
thereof) over the set word limit. A 5% tolerance level is applied to word
counts. For example, this means that for an essay with a 3000 word limit you
will not be penalised unless you write more than 3150 words.
2. Please pay attention to the structure and presentation of your work. Write
clearly and simply and spell correctly. You should not use either footnotes
or a bibliography for this assessment as it is an attempt to practice
your writing for the online exam in January.
3. You should identify supporting authorities/sources for your assertions as you
would in any law exam. See pp7-8 of the module handbook for further
guidance on referencing in online exams.
4. The work must be your own work. Do not copy other people’s work.
Plagiarism and collusion are serious breaches of the examination regulations
which will be penalised in accordance with the Assessment Code of Practice.
5. One electronic copy of the relevant cwork must be submitted by 2pm by the
specified deadline date on the Canvas submission box. You are only
required to submit one electronic copy of your work via Canvas. This must be
in Microsoft Word format – that is .doc and .docx, or you can submit a PDF
file. You are responsible for submitting the correct file, if you submit a
document in error, you will be allowed one further submission attempt.
6. Handing in work to your tutor, putting it under their door, e-mailing a copy or
any other method of distribution will not be acceptable. Work that is not
submitted in the correct manner will not be classed as a submission and will
not be marked.
7. Students must make sure they leave sufficient time to submit an electronic
copy of the work. You are responsible for ensuring that the work is submitted
on time. Late penalties will be applied to work that is submitted late. Student
should consult Section 6 of the University’s Code of Practice on Assessment
which deals with Late Submission of work.
8. Students should take a screenshot of their successful upload of work on
Canvas for their records. Once you have submitted your work you must go
back into Canvas to check that you have uploaded the correct version. It is
the sole responsibility of the student to submit the correct work.
9. Students are advised to retain a duplicate copy of any submitted
assignments.