Abstract

Two decades ago, I wrote an essay expressing my skepticism about the nascent movement to certify bioethics consultants. My concerns were numerous. For example, I worried that the move toward certification would give too much weight to moral theory and neglect the importance of the less formal moral reasoning of patients and their families. I was also concerned that the effort to certify competence, complete with standardized testing, would be largely self-promotional and make unfounded claims about who has the capacity to do this work. My worries were prescient. Notice, for example, the way that the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities was advertising its new Healthcare Ethics...