Clinical ethics support services in Europe

The paper presents the main debates that have taken place on clinical ethics committees within the European project entitled Ethical Function in Hospital Ethics Committees. It depicts the great variety of formula existing in Europe in terms of legal status, functions, accessibility, composition and training requirements and a the onset of clinical ethics concept itself. Moreover, in the interstices of the various institutionalised ethics systems we can find extremely innovative initiatives under development, spawned more by premises of a political nature than drawn from the specialised corps of medical ethics. Could clinical ethical committees play some role in the overall democratisation process in medicine?