This work maps the criminal process's impact on several key issues in medicine and its arbitration of bioethics.

Introduction: beginning the story; 1. Courtrooms, 'physic' and drama; 2. Crime, doctors and the body (politic); 3. From the 'theatre' to the dock via the mortuary; 4. Protecting life before birth; 5. Medical (and non-medical) ending of life; 6. Which twin lives?; 7. Drawing connections: morality, (political) liberalism, responsibility and the theatre of interpretation; 8. Parallels and disconnects: bioethical principles, principles of criminalisation and the rule of law; Concluding thoughts: a story part told?

Margaret Brazier is a Professor of Law at the University of Manchester.