Medicine, Ethics and the Law

Professor Deirdre Madden is a Professor of Law at the School of Law, University College, Cork. She has research interests and publications primarily in the area of medical law and ethics. She has a Master's degree on surrogate motherhood and a PhD on the law relating to assisted reproduction. She was called to the Bar in 1989. Her books include Medicine, Ethics and the Law (3rd edn, 2016) and Medical Law (3rd edn, 2017). Professor Madden was author of the Report on Post-Mortem Practice and Procedure (2005) and Chairperson of the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance which published its Report, entitled Building a Culture of Patient Safety, in July 2008. Professor Madden was a member of the Medical Council from 2004-2013 and is a current member of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council. She has been a member of a number of national expert groups related to medical law, ethics and patient safety, including the National Patient Safety Advisory Group, the Board of the National Office of Clinical Audit, the National Advisory Committee on Bioethics, the Expert Group on the Implementation of the ABC v Ireland judgement, Expert Advisory Group to the Citizen's Assembly on the 8th Amendment, the Independent Review Group on the Role of Voluntary Organisations in Health and Social care. Professor Madden also chaired the National Consent Advisory Group for the HSE and the National Steering Group on the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act. She is currently a member of the Board of the Health Information and Quality Authority, and a member of the Board of the South/South West Hospital Group. In addition to participation in a number of European research projects, Professor Madden has been an Expert Evaluator on ethics for the European Commission for more than 10 years; a member of the Research Ethics Committee for the National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland; consultant for the National Healthcare Regulatory Authority in Bahrain; member of the National Council of the Forum on End-of-Life; and an elected Fellow of the Hastings Center in the United States. She has been a Visiting Professor at Colby College, Maine USA, St Louis University, Missouri, and the University of Sydney. She is also a frequent media commentator on issues relating to medical law and ethics.