Healthcare delivery in the 21st century has become increasingly complex and demanding. Clinical consultations frequently raise scientific, ethical, and legal challenges. While scientific issues may be resolved using an evidence-based medicine approach, ethical theory is needed to justify decision making in the face of ethical conflict. Bioethics, medical law, and human rights: a South African perspective provides the conceptual background and analytic skills necessary to assist with the resolution of ethical dilemmas encountered in the South African healthcare environment. It uses case studies to help the healthcare team to identify and analyse ethical, moral and value concepts, and to apply these concepts to scenarios that they may encounter daily.

Part 1 explores theories and principles of ethics (including African philosophy), introduces medical law, discusses health and human rights, and makes the transition from theory to practice. Part 2 looks at specific topics in healthcare that raise challenges from an ethics perspective – HIV/AIDS, organ transplantation, mental healthcare, euthanasia, human reproduction, genetics, and considerations for working with children. Part 3 considers important contemporary issues such as emerging biotechnologies including genomics and ethical complexity, big data and artificial intelligence, pandemic ethics, and climate change. In view of the increasing emphasis on ethical considerations in healthcare from the Health Professions Council of South Africa and institutions of higher education, coupled with the rising incidence of litigation in healthcare, Bioethics, medical law, and human rights is essential reading for health science, law, and philosophy students as well as practicing healthcare professionals.