Hazel McHaffie

Hazel McHaffie is the award winning author of a new series of novels, described by Fay Weldon as “an entirely new genre for fiction and an absorbing and fascinating one too.” Originally a nurse then midwife, McHaffie has been a Research Fellow at Edinburgh University for over 20 years.

NcHaffie’s books weave together gripping plots with accurate medical detail and challenging ethical questions. Issues such as hybrid embryos, assisted dying, genetic engineering, proxy decision making for the mentally incompetent, surrogate pregnancy, drugs for patients with Alzheimer’s – all are address in her novels.

With her background in medicine and ethics, Hazel is well qualified to tackle these difficult subjects. During her twenty years as a university researcher she published a prolific number of articles and books, and her ground-breaking text, Crucial Decisions at the Beginning of Life, was voted BMA Medical Book of the Year 2002. Since moving into fiction she has kept a steady stream of stories coming. Paternity, Double Trouble and Vacant Possession were published by Racliffe Publishing in 2005. Her fifth novel, Right to Die, was published by Luath Press in May 2008, and has been described by reviewers as “an immensely sensitive and thoughtful book”, “written with rare understanding.” A sixth novel is already with her publisher, and a seventh one is well on the way. She has outlines and plots for many more.

These books have been used as an innovative introduction to ethics in many arenas and discussion points and additional information to augment their use is included on the author’s own website.

“There are very few novels which deal with the issues of contemporary medical ethics in the lively and intensely readable way which Hazel McHaffie’s books do. She uses her undoubted skill as a storyteller to weave tales of moral quandary, showing us with subtlety and sympathy how we might tackle some of the ethical issues which modern medicine has thrown up. She has demonstrated that hard cases make good reading.” Alexander McCall Smith