Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees is the first resource designed to address the range of work performed by ethics committees as part of their multiple responsibilities, including education, case consultation, and policy development. It features an eight-chapter curriculum reviewing the content of contemporary health care bioethics and discussing the ethical foundations of clinical practice, with each subsequent section focusing on a set of ethical issues that commonly arise in the clinical setting. Through case studies, the authors explore issues such as informed consent and refusal, decision making and decisional capacity, truth telling, decision-making concerns of minors, end-of-life issues, palliation, justice in and access to health care services, and organizational ethics. They offer sample policies and procedures, draft guidelines and protocols, and key legal cases.

Ethical foundations of clinical practice -- Decision making and decisional capacity in adults -- Informed consent and refusal -- Truth telling: disclosure and confidentiality -- Special decision-making concerns of minors -- End-of-life issues -- Palliation -- Justice, access to care, and organizational ethics -- Clinical ethics consultation -- White papers, memoranda, guidelines, and protocols -- Sample policies and procedures.