This subject aims to provide knowledge and understanding of Australian medical law, including some cutting edge legal and policy issues that arise in this field. The legal issues are examined in broad social, cultural and ethical contexts, including critical perspectives on medical law and policy relating to Indigenous people. Medical law is an exceptionally vibrant and challenging field, underpinned by the rapid pace of scientific and social developments that generate new issues for medicine and for the law. Many of the more challenging issues for the law are at the core of policy — birth and reproduction, choice and responsibility, life and death.