Ethics

The Clinical Ethics Council (CEC) is available for consultation by health professionals, patients and relatives seeking an ethical opinion in a specific situation.

The Council:

• produces advisory ethical opinions in real clinical situations, where there are conflicting value judgments, including where a quick decision is necessary.
• issues advisory recommendations regarding general clinical problems which have an ethical aspect and which could be encountered in the practice of hospital medicine.
• participates, along with the existing organizations in this sector, in delivering continuous training in ethics for medical and caring staff            
• interviews all living liver donors (FR): the CEC must check the quality of the information given to potential donors by the transplant team, ensure the donors have made an independent choice and give a decisive* opinion.
• give a decisive* opinion to the teams called upon by a patient, on the presence or absence of criteria laid down for an assisted suicide within the hospital.                              

*the only exceptions to the normally advisory opinions of the Ethics Committee

The Clinical Ethics Council is not competent to investigate clinical research protocols.

Opinions and guidelines

The Ethical Council issues advisory opinions (apart from on living liver donors and assisted suicide) which are recorded in the patient’s medical file and which do not replace the professionals concerned, who themselves remain the sole judges of the final decision to be taken with regard to the patient.

The recommendations issued by the Clinical Ethics Council are not binding, but aim to define a benchmark model for medical and caring staff who find themselves confronted with such situations.

Referral to the Council

Anyone who feels affected by the ethical nature of a situation has the right to make representations to the Clinical Ethics Council.