Taking the long view: David Rothman’s Strangers at the Bedside: A History of How Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making

This chapter concerns David Rothman’s origin story of the incursion of ‘outsiders’ (lawyers and bioethicists) into the world of medicine. Strangers at the Bedside: A History of How Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making explains the how and why of this incursion and provides a meditation on the merits of the changes wrought. Written by an outsider and an insider, this chapter argues that the legacy of Strangers is not that it tells the ‘truth’ of the origins of contemporary health law, but, rather, lies in the methodological and evaluative approach which it employs. By asking questions about what bioethics and law have achieved, Strangers invites us to ponder their contemporary role and to critically evaluate their capacity to make a future meaningful contribution to the rights, health, and security of the public in their interactions with healthcare.