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Webinar - Clinical Ethics on Thursday, November 6th 2025
"The Not So Obvious Benefits of Ethics Committees: What Is Lost Without Them". Hear Prof. Katherine Wasson from Loyola University Chicago, USA, talk about the essential contributions of clinical ethics committees to clinical practice and institutions.
Webinar 6. November 2025
Speaker: Prof. Katherine Wasson, PhD, MPH, HEC-C (Loyola University Chicago, USA)
Date and time: Thursday, 6. November 2025, 15:00–16:15 CET (UTC+1)
Language: English
Online via Zoom: Zoom-Link
"The Not So Obvious Benefits of Ethics Committees: What Is Lost Without Them"
A functioning ethics committee provides education, policy development and review, and ethics consultation. Struggling ethics committees can pose ongoing challenges for their members and hospital leadership and some have called to disband such committees and shift the work entirely to full-time clinical ethicists. There are downsides to this model and the more subtle benefits of sustaining these committees should be considered. I will explore the importance of ethics committees in contributing to professional formation, providing a set time and place for critical reflection on one's own ethics consultation practice, and prevention of "mission drift". The reach of an ethics committee and its members should not be underestimated or undervalued.