Ethics consultation, professional praxis, and what it means to be a “consultant”

Abstract

The situation described by Finder in “The Zadeh Scenario” is a very familiar one to those of us who work as ethicists in United States hospitals. The outcome he records, however, is unusually benign; indeed, and unfortunately, in many US hospitals the ultimately unresolved/unmediated conflict he describes would almost certainly result in the patient’s being subjected to futile attempts at life-prolongation and resuscitation. In this sense, the outcome of this ethics consultation might be considered “good” insofar as it did not result in such futile attempts. But that sense of “good” is fleeting given other concerns which serve as the focus of this chapter.