Korean J Med Ethics.  2017 Dec;20(4):359-375.

Clinical Ethics Consultation and Hospital Ethics Committees

• CHOI K

Abstract

This article addresses the question of what is an appropriate Korean translation of “clinical ethics consultation” and also interprets clinical ethics as a branch of medical ethics. Three models of clinical ethics consultation are introduced: an authoritarian approach, a pure facilitation approach, and an ethics facilitation approach. The author argues that an ethics facilitation approach is the most desirable one in a pluralistic society. Contemporary Korean society is moving in the direction of a pluralistic society, with both eastern and western influences as well as progressive and traditional forces. Where there is no single, dominant value system, it is desirable that consultants try to help relevant parties reach reasonable conclusions within moral boundaries rather than recommend one conclusion. In a pluralistic society, an ethics facilitation approach does not imply moral relativism. Hospital ethics committees established according to the current law should be organized to provide clinical ethics consultation. While the current law limits the role of hospital ethics committees to the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment that their role should be broadened into fully-fledged hospital ethics committees that cooperates with a team taking multi-disciplinary approaches to the resolution of ethical issues.

Keyword

clinical ethics consultation; authoritarian approach; pure facilitation approach; ethics facilitation approach; hospital ethics committee; life-sustaining treatment