Ethics Committees and Due Process

Abstract

Susan Wolf, in an important article on hospital or institutional ethics committees (IECs) and due process, writes:Ethics committees are in a due process wasteland. There is no indication that committees regularly offer patients any of the basic procedural protections such as notice, an opportunity to be heard, a chance to confront those in opposition, receipt of a written determination and a statement of reasons, and an opportunity to challenge that determination. Ethics corninittees may seek the decisive power of the Adjudicatory Model, while using the process of the Consultation Model. This is the worst of both worlds—the committee wields great influence over the treatment decision but accords no protection for the patient's rights.There are few data upon which to draw to disagree with Wolf's first claim about a due process “wasteland.” I suspect that it is mostly true, although one can observe, as I do, that Susan Wolf has omitted a great deal of evolution concerning ethics consultation in her article.