Acute clinical ethics consultation: the practicalities.
In Australia there has been only limited experience with ethics consultation, and there are no reports of practical details. In 1999, the Institutional Clinical Ethics Committee at John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, initiated an Acute Clinical Ethics Service (ACES) to formalise a perceived need within the hospital for ethics consultation. This need had previously been met by ad-hoc councils of "wise men". The ACES approach uses a team of people with different perspectives to provide an ethics consultation in a timely manner. Our initial experience of ACES has shown that a formal process of ethics consultation may be preferable to informal approaches in many circumstances; even when genuine consensus is not possible, an ethics consultation nevertheless provides an opportunity to share different points of view and helps to avoid practices that may be unacceptable. The specific implications of acute ethics consultations are not yet fully elucidated.
Women's and Children's Health Service, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Bagot Rd, Subiaco, WA 6008, Australia. andy.gill@health.wa.gov.au
Andrew W
AW
Gill
Peter
P
Saul
John
J
McPhee
Ian
I
Kerridge
D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D004314:Down Syndrome; D028741:Ethics Committees, Clinical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second; D016414:Resuscitation Orders / Q000941:ethics; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000941:ethics