Strengthening Clinical Ethics Committees: An Examination of the Jurisprudence and a Call for Reform

by CARMEL SHACHAR

Increasingly, ethics conflicts in hospitals are adjudicated not through the judicial system but through hospital ethics committees. Ethics committees resolve disagreements over treatment plans, interpretations of do not resuscitate orders, and other medical issues, providing critical guidance to health care practitioners. The case law in some states, such as New Jersey, suggests that the recommendations of ethics committees ought to be binding on courts. In other states, such as Massachusetts and Florida, courts have ruled that ethics committee recommendations should be persuasive in court proceedings but not determinative. But even in these states, ethics committees can have great influence over right to die and other medical decisions.

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