Strathclyde Hosts the Great Medico-Legal Debate
On Thursday 21st February 2019, the University of Strathclyde hosted the Great Medico-Legal Debate for the first time. The debate, organised by the University of Edinburgh’s Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Science and the Law, is a prestigious annual competition which in previous years has been a contest between teams of students from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Strathclyde students also took part in the debate for the first time this year, with two of our 4th year LLB Honours students, Nicholas Konopate and Melissa Murray, making up the majority of a 3-member combined Strathclyde/Glasgow team (together with Soumya Polavarapu, a science undergraduate from the University of Glasgow).
In front of a large audience, the teams debated the motion: "In what ways, if at all, should the 'best interests' test be reformed in relation to the medical treatment of children?" Professor Alison Britton, a healthcare law & ethics expert from Glasgow Caledonian University, was the guest judge.
The standard of debate was extremely high: all of the participants put in excellent performances, demonstrated an excellent knowledge of the law, and spoke with great conviction.
In the end, and despite a very strong performance from an accomplished Edinburgh team, the combined Strathclyde/Glasgow team were worthy winners, and their advocacy skills were highly praised by the judge. They also persuaded the audience: at the beginning of the debate, an audience poll showed that a majority took the view that the law should change, but after listening to the arguments, a second poll showed that the Strathclyde/Glasgow team had persuaded enough audience members to change their minds that there was now a majority in favour of retaining the best interests test!
Dr Mary Neal, who teaches Healthcare Law & Ethics at Strathclyde, said: “It was wonderful to bring this great annual event to Strathclyde for the first time. The Strathclyde participants were a real credit to the University and the Law School, and everyone expressed the hope that Strathclyde will be involved in the event again in future years. I’m very grateful to colleagues at the Mason Institute for the sterling work they put in to organising the debate, and to Professor Britton for being our distinguished expert judge.”
You can listen to the debate here: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/The+Great+Medico-Legal+Debate+2019/1_g7p0917h
You can listen to the judge’s verdict and commendations here: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/The+Great+Medico-Legal+Debate+2019+-+Commendations/1_qz1rok5h
