Letters
Hospital ethics committees may discourage staff from making own decisions
BMJ 2000; 321 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.321.7273.1414/a (Published 02 December 2000) Cite this as: BMJ 2000;321:1414
- Frank (Yeruham) Leavitt (yeruham@bgumail.bgu.ac.il), chairman
- Centre for Asian and International Bioethics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
EDITOR—I am sceptical about the value of clinical ethics committees.1
Firstly, having a hospital ethicist or ethics committee can allow the ward staff to let others take the responsibility for hard decisions: “The ethicists said it was OK. What do you want of me?”
Secondly, the existence of ethicists and their committees can be an excuse for ward …
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