Ethics committees and ethics consultants

Ethics committee and ethics consultants are among the more interesting phenomena associated with bioethics. Although in some respects both reach back to the ancient origins of medical ethics, in other ways they are reflections of a ‘postmodern’ society that seeks moral resolutions while remaining agnostic about substantive moral absolutes. In the present article I shall describe the history of ethics committees and ethics consultants, the received view ‘of their functions and uncertainties about their appropriate status. I will conclude with some philosophical remarks about the nature of ethics committees and ethics consultants, as well as their implications for the field of bioethics.