Proceeding of The Future of Life - Legal, Scientific, and Geopolitical Challenges (TFOL2025)

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Surveillance Medicine and the Law

A Critical Legal Study into AI, Ethics, and the Right to Health

Authors
Amber Heaviside1, *
1School of Law, University of Greater Manchester, Bolton, UK
*Corresponding author. Email: A.Heaviside@greatermanchester.ac.uk
Corresponding Author
Amber Heaviside
Available Online 13 March 2026.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-555-3_7How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Medical Law; Artificial Intelligence; Human Rights; Surveillance Medicine; Legal Ethics
Abstract

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming embedded in healthcare systems around the world. As this happens, the promise of efficiency, predictability, and personalisation of care is frequently presented as a moral imperative. However, there remains a growing body of evidence that AI-driven healthcare technologies can systematically undermine core principles of medical and legal ethics and, potentially, breach fundamental human rights. This study is an exploration of the deployment of AI in healthcare - specifically predictive algorithms, triage bots, and data-driven diagnostics - and how these risks infringe upon the right to health and the right to non-discrimination.

This study aims, through the lens of critical legal studies, to interrogate how these systems and technologies replicate and automate existing forms of inequality, while hidden by the veil of neutral language and innovation. Drawing upon case studies including UnitedHealth, Babylon Health, and DeepMind, the study demonstrates how algorithmic health tools can exacerbate systemic issues such as racism, gender biases and digital exclusion. It also aims to explore how existing legal systems fail to challenge these harmful effects and perpetually reinforce power dynamics and data commodification under the veil of progress.

By critically re-examining the legal governance of AI in healthcare, this study calls for a reassertion of ethical and rights-based principles in emerging health technology regulation, focused not on market efficiency, but on ethical principles like equality, autonomy and human dignity.

Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceeding of The Future of Life - Legal, Scientific, and Geopolitical Challenges (TFOL2025)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
13 March 2026
ISBN
978-2-38476-555-3
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-555-3_7How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Amber Heaviside
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - Surveillance Medicine and the Law
BT  - Proceeding of The Future of Life - Legal, Scientific, and Geopolitical Challenges (TFOL2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 95
EP  - 106
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-555-3_7
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-555-3_7
ID  - Heaviside2026
ER  -