Freckelton Ian
Barrister, Crockett Chambers, Melbourne, Australia.
Professorial Fellow in Law and Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia.
J Law Med. 2018 Jul;25(4):869-893.
In the first 25 years of the Journal of Law and Medicine issues relating to abortion, euthanasia, turning off of life support, pandemics, cloning, surrogacy, technological change, patenting of DNA, regulation of health practitioners, health services in the Information and Genomic eras, mental health law, elder law, and medical negligence have figured prominently in the published scholarly contributions. This editorial reflects on the evolution of health law in its many aspects, contrasting issues that were contentious in 1993 with those that are in 2018 and reflecting on what is likely to continue to attract interdisciplinary analysis and the need for critical evaluation in the decades ahead.