Healthcare ethics committees and the law: uneasy but inevitable bedfellows

Given the intellectual and institutional history of bioethics and HECs, it is not surprising that law continues to influence HECs and to shape HEC discussions of substantive issues. But it is not at all clear that the role currently played by law is optimum and represents the most appropriate means of resolving complicated and sensitive clinical and policy issues faced every day by HECs. At the same time, it would be unrealistic to expect that the law's influence could be, or should be, banished from the hearts and minds of HEC members, their discourse, and their deliberations. Therefore, legal habits of mind and legal considerations will likely continue to influence HECs because the issues they regularly face necessarily raise both legal and ethical questions, and because HEC members are drawn from a popular culture in which, rightly or wrongly, law is equated with rights, justice and morality.