An Ethics Expertise for Clinical Ethics Consultation

Abstract

A major obstacle to broad support of clinical ethics consultation (CEC) is suspicion regarding the nature of the moral expertise it claims to offer. The suspicion seems to be confirmed when the field fails to make its moral expertise explicit. In this vacuum, critics suggest the following: (1)Clinical ethics consultation's legitimacy depends on its ability to offer an expertise in moral matters. (2)Expertise in moral matters is knowledge of a singular moral truth which applies to everyone. (3)The claim that a clinical ethics consultant can offer knowledge of a singular moral truth in virtue of her professional training is absurd, false, or gravely immoral.Therefore, (4)The field is illegitimate.