Medical law is now a distinct and important legal subject. The rights and duties of the medical profession and the increasing human rights demands of patients ensures medical law continues to be one of the most dynamic and challenging subjects for study and debate. Since the publication of the first edition of this book, medical law has had to confront a series of cases concerning one of the most intractable issues of our time, the termination of patients' lives in distressing conditions. Since the momentous House of Lords' decision in the case of Anthony Bland, a victim of the Hillsborough Stadium disaster, the medical law courts have had to react to changes in medical technology which can increase a patient's life-span whilst inspiring strong ethical dilemmas. Medical research has recently pioneered the technology to clone the human species as well as transplant organs from animals to humans. These are just a sample of current matters considered in the second edition of Textbook on Medical Law, which remains both a description and an evaluation of the law as it stands and is an aid to understanding the core principles which guide the future development of that law.