This is the first in an annual series of volumes on medical law and ethics based on lectures given at the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, King's College London. The contributors, who came from a wide range of disciplines and represent diverse interests, review important issues in the forefront of recent controversy, related particularly to artificially assisted reproduction and to the Gillick judgment. It is hoped that their essays will stimulate reflection and debate on the ethical and legal issues that surround contemporary medical practice and will inaugurate a series that will come to be viewed as an important source of comment.