Balancing Best Interests in Healthcare Ethics and Law (BABEL): A study of legal decision making
About the study
The interdisciplinary BABEL project explores healthcare decisions for individuals (adults and children) who are deemed to be unable to make a decision for themselves. The study runs for 5 years from 2018 and is being run by academics who are based in the Centre for Health, Law and Society in the University of Bristol Law School and the Centre for Ethics in Medicine at Bristol Medical School.
Purpose of the study
When a person is unconscious or considered unable to make a healthcare decision for themselves, either permanently or periodically, a decision can be made in their ‘best interests’ in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005, or where the healthcare decision concerns a child, in accordance with the Children Act 1989. BABEL investigates how the concept of ‘best interests’ is and should be understood in healthcare, law and practice as it relates to adults and children.
The Law workstream is exploring how ‘best interests’ decisions are made in a legal context and examines the factors and values that are and should be considered, those people or bodies that are and should be involved, and indeed whether ‘best interests' is the best approach in these situations. It also examines the evolution of the concept of best interests; for example, as being understood as more than just ‘medical’ interests and the increased weight and importance that has been placed latterly on the person’s wishes and feelings. Complimenting this examination is a discussion of how such changes may have come about and what factors may have been responsible for the shift in the law using a ‘hidden law makers’ approach.
What the study involves
- BABEL has three research phases: Mapping, Framing and Shaping. To date we have concluded the first phase by mapping out the relevant legal landscape.
- The Framing Stage of the Law Workstream of the BABEL project focuses on interviews with relevant legal actors, each of whom will have experience of working with the law on best interests decision making for adults and/or children.
- The participants will have relevant knowledge of how best interests decisions are being made and / or how such decisions have been made previously.
- We would like to talk to legal and allied professionals who have professional experience of how best interests is interpreted in a legal context, as well as other professionals who have been involved with healthcare decisions or in legal developments relating to how best interests are interpreted by the courts.
Who is running the study?
- Our Research Team, based at University of Bristol Law School, is Professor Judy Laing, Professor Sheelagh McGuinness and Dr Aoife Finnerty. Our research is funded by the Wellcome Trust.
- The study has received ethical approval from the University of Bristol Law School Research Ethics Committee.
- The expected timeline for conducting the first phase of the empirical research comprising interviews with participating professionals is between November 2021 and October 2022.
Contact Details
If you would like more information about the study or if you are interested in participating, please contact Aoife Finnerty, Senior Research Associate in Law, BABEL Law Workstream on aoife.finnerty@bristol.ac.uk, or complete this short contact form.
Participant Information
Further information can be found in our participant information booklet. If you would like this information in a different format, pleast contact Aoife Finnerty.
