ABSTRACT
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIETY, THE LAW AND THE MEDICAL profession is a complex association, 2 with each intricately entwined with the other two; although, notwithstanding the fact that 'medical law' has been recognised as a subject since 1788, 3 the unifying term 'medico-legal' did not enter the English language 4 until 1835. 5 Despite Hemingway's rather jaundiced view of the two professions ('writers should stick together like doctors and lawyers and wolves'), 6 14the truth is that society cannot exist without laws; 7 law provides the fundamental agreements which form a country's constitution (whether written or unwritten as such). 8 As part of its 'social cohesion' role, 9 the law dictates how every facet of medicine is practised. 10 In the 21st century the latter extends even to the type of clothes worn in hospitals (short sleeves, no ties or watches), which many see as without evidence but 'as a weapon in the campaign to deprofessionalise medicine'. 11 Meanwhile, various advances in medical science result in medical practice pushing against legal boundaries (e.g. in the fields of cloning, 12 transplantation, 13 genetic testing 14 and euthanasia 15 ) and thereby often influencing changes within the law 16 (with echoes in European Law, 17 individual jurisdictions such as Australia, 18 Germany 19 and the Netherlands 20 ). Although law's 15'pervasive influence' 21 on the medical profession and the practice of medicine is frequently viewed with 'exasperation and lamentation' 22 (with law being cast as a 'meddlesome intruder' 23 or even an 'insatiable cormorant' 24 ), it is without question that 'no profession is above the law'. 25 However, it is not always in the best interest of society for medical professionals to practise defensively. 26 In short, the land between medicine and law might be better thought of as 'common ground' rather than 'battleground'. With both law and medicine effectively sanctioned by and answerable to society, law becomes what Teff called a 'phantom enemy' to medicine. 27
