ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the problem of the legitimacy of medical law and asks whether the close connection between law and morality that inspired Ken Mason's work can be maintained in an increasingly consumerist society. If law has no such right, then medical law is probably doomed to collapse into some form of value-neutral consumer protection enterprise. The traditional subject matter of medical law was barely touched upon in the Hart-Devlin debate, but Devlin himself observed that if Hart's argument that private morality was none of the law's business were to prevail, amongst the areas that would be likely to be challenged would be the law on abortion. The acceptance of the case by the courts implies that professional norms are seen as a component of the quasi-legal structure of medical law and therefore a public issue.
