The relationship between medical law and good medical ethics.

In the UK, medical ethics and law are often thought of and taught together, but while 'good medical ethics' is often reflected in law-the need to obtain a patient's adequately informed consent, for example-this is not necessarily the case. Sometimes medical ethics is more demanding than law; at other times, perhaps counterintuitively, the law appears to ask more of doctors than does good medical ethics. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.