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What is an ethicist?
(It's not a philosopher who specialized in ethics.)

An ethicist is one whose judgment on ethics and ethical codes has come to be trusted by a specific community, and (importantly) is expressed in some way that makes it possible for others to mimic or approximate that judgment.

Indeed, modern ethicists take the view that ethics is only about  resolving actual problems and actual disputes, and that theories of ethics that are not useful in resolving real-world problems are not useful.

A thoughtful consideration of the role of the clinical (health care) ethicist has been done by David Sontag at Are clinical ethics consultants in danger? An analysis of the potential legal liability of individual clinical ethicists,  Univ. of Penn. Law Review (December 01, 2002).  Much of what he says applies to ethicists in all fields of human endeavor, including business or charitable organizations.

When most ethicists are called for a consultation on an ethics problem by a group, they try to achieve a morally acceptable consensus result. If the views of the ethics consultant differs from the consensus view of the group requesting the consultation,  the consultant states the developed consensus view, his/her  own dissenting view and the arguments in support of each position.

Back to the page on using an ethicist in your ethics committee.

 

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