Medical Ethics, Law and Humanities MA/PgDip/PgCert

About this course

• Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
• Application deadline: 30 June 2024

Ethics, professionalism and law strongly impact the practice of medicine, while an ethical, regulatory and legal matters permeate modern scientific practice. The Medical Ethics, Law and Humanities postgraduate course introduces students to key perspectives in medical ethics, law and humanities and to problems arising in current healthcare practice and biomedical research. Students will learn and apply humanities, ethics and legal analysis to address ethical, legal and social challenges in medical and scientific practice.

Healthcare provision and the fruits of research in biomedical sciences are strong contributors to our wellbeing, and an important part of modern societies. Scientific and technological developments, resource distribution pressures and challenges such pandemics and demographic changes require those systems to adapt. Assuring such adaptation will require a coordinated effort from the health sector, policymakers, scientists, communities and a variety of professions in order to promote the common good. Could you be part of helping science and medicine to adapt and to work for the common good?

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Course content

If you are looking to make a real difference in adding to a reflective, ethical and informed healthcare and scientific practice, our stimulating Medical Ethics, Law and Humanities MA will help you to better understand ethical, legal and social challenges in science and medicine and related policy practices. Reflecting contemporary concerns and areas of research and teaching excellence at St George’s, we offer a course that takes us from insights of history of medicine and scientific innovation, through contemporary problems in medicine, science and global health, to considering future of medicine, biomedical sciences and their regulation.

Highly applied in nature, drawing on experiences of our own faculty and the many practitioners we have links with. The course will:

• Enable students learn about core ethical and legal concepts, theories and facts.
• Empower students to analyse and solve problems in ethical, legal and social aspects of medicine and biomedical research.
• Inspire students to address current societal challenges.
• Provide the foundations for lifetime training and education in medical ethics, law and the humanities which will enable students to pursue a clinical or non-clinical career in the area.

Careers

Graduating with a postgraduate degree in Medical Ethics, Law and Humanities from St George’s opens a variety of opportunities – in academic, healthcare and science-related and ethics, law and humanities. The breadth of practical experience and insight will help prepare you to make impactful change in the way healthcare, science is practices, regulated and understood by the public.

Careers in medical ethics, law and humanities are often divided into complementing your professional practice (in healthcare, science, law, policy, management, etc), academic opportunities and health and science related humanities.

Clinicians with postgraduate medical law and ethics training often are to be found leading ethics education in many medical schools across the country. Clinicians completing an MA might also utilise this qualification to gain training places in their chosen fields. International clinicians may benefit too. Some of these clinicians may also use the MA as a steppingstone to an MD/PhD and a growing number of trainee doctors in the UK complete an MA or PhD before taking up a consultancy post. Scientists and science graduates might use humanities and science approaches to complement their projects with public engagement, science communication and ELSI (ethical, legal and social implications) projects, as well as contribute to education.

Contact/visit us

You can reach out to us at pgenquiries@sgul.ac.uk with any questions, or speak to our current students via Unibuddy.

You may also like to attend one of our upcoming postgraduate events in March and April, where you can tour our campus and hear from students and current staff, including course directors and our admissions team.

For details on how to apply, please visit the Medical Ethics, Law and Humanities course page.