Most clinical ethics committees (CECs) have lay members. Why are they there, how are they chosen, and what do they do? Can their presence make health professionals less prone to jargon and hospital politicking, and can the lay members ever hope to represent the broad sweep of patients when many of them are white, middle class females? As hospital managers embrace CECs and even boast about them, will their informality be lost, with consequent exposure of professional and lay members to (...) public scrutiny and criticism? Will brave, open discussion be stifled, and the purpose of the committees ultimately be lost? (shrink)

Over the past 15 years or so, Clinical Ethics Committees (CECs) have been established in many healthcare settings in the UK. How do they work, who sits on them, and what do they discuss? How formal should they be? Should their decisions be binding on clinicians, or purely advisory? Should they offer their services to patients and their families too? Are they valuable additions to clinical support, or simply intellectual talking-shops for their members? Should other countries set up CECs as (...) part of their own approach to Clinical Ethics? (shrink)