Dr Aisling McMahon, Department of Law
Friday, March 20, 2020 - 11:30
Dr Aisling McMahon has published a co-authored article with Prof TT Arvind (University of York) entitled “Responsiveness and the Role of Rights in Medical Law: Lessons From Montgomery” in the Medical Law Review. The article examines the role of rights within medical law taking informed consent and specifically the decision of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board (2015) as a case study. The article argues that patients’ rights must be evaluated in terms of their contribution to making medical law more socially responsive, by developing it to give effect to social needs and aspirations related to healthcare. Drawing on socio-legal literature, it puts forward a new approach for guiding the use of rights in medical law focused on the functional consequences of rights in facilitating patients’ aspirations, and the capacity of rights to respond to social and institutional contexts in which medical interaction occurs.
Dr McMahon writes primarily on medical law and patent law, and particularly, on the relationship between health and patent law. Her recent work in the medical law field includes a co-authored article in Medical Law Review with Prof Barbara Prainsack and Prof Alena Buyx entitled ‘Big Data Governance Needs More Collective Responsibility: The Role of Harm Mitigation in the Governance of Data Use in Medicine and Beyond’.
Dr McMahon is an Assistant Professor in Maynooth University Department of Law where her teaching includes a module on Contemporary Issues in Medicine and the Law and a new module on Patents, Health and Biotechnologies.