CLINICAL ETHICAL CONSULTING: ITS REASON AND ITS ROLES

Abstract

Clinical Ethics Consultation emerged from the experience of Clinical Ethics Committees (CEC), as a way of getting over their limitations. CEC meets once or twice per month, analyzes cases in a more theoretical mode, ignoring contextual features. Consultation brings Bioethics closer to health professionals, patients and their relatives, but there is no universal methodology for its work. Consultants need special training and are members of CEC. All cases are discussed in CEC meetings more in their theoretical than their practical perspective. From our experience of more than 15 years in ethical consultation we define four roles of Clinical Ethics Consultation: 1) Deliberation of clinical and bioethical issues altogether with patient’s values and preferences; 2) Bring Bioethics closer to clinics, contextual features and patient’s life; 3) Support for patients, relatives or surrogates their participation in decision making; and 4) Analysis of paradigmatic cases in CEC for their study and eventual normative proposals.