We are not the ethics police
The professionalization of clinical ethicists and the regulation of medical decision-making
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4590419 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Will Schupmann (0000-0002-5937-8118, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 322 |
| Pages | 115808 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Science & Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115808 |
| PMID | 36854201 |
| OpenAlex | W4321763231 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 13 |
Clinical ethicists represent a growing profession in U.S. healthcare. This profession's aspirations include serving as a supportive resource to hospital staff, but also as an ethics "watchdog," ensuring that medical decision-making adheres to ethical standards. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews conducted in 2021 of clinical ethicists working across the U.S., I evaluate the extent to which these watchdog aspirations have been achieved. I investigate ethicists' success in leveraging three strategies aspiring professions have used to secure their jurisdictional claims: acquiring professional expertise, securing administrative authority, and cultivating trusting relationships. I show that ethicists face barriers to leveraging each, which has consequences for how ethical dilemmas are resolved. Findings point to challenges aspiring professions must overcome in order to claim jurisdictions posing a threat to incumbent professions; the tensions that exist between legal risk management and clinical ethics; and the organizational strategies marginal actors leverage to advance their interests and influence the delivery of healthcare
Engineering ethics · Face (sociological concept · Health care · Leverage (statistics · Medical ethics · Organizational ethics · Political science · Professionalization · Public relations · Sociology · Ethics in medical practice · Law · Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues · Torture, Ethics, and Law
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |