Committees 2.0: duties, possibilities and challenges of institutional ethics in the 21st century

Abstract

Ethics committees are one of the main agents in the governance of science and technology, especially in the field of health care. This paper analyses some aspects of their nature, which show the internal relationship between the moral and the scientific-technological domains. Being both knowledge providers and users thereof, ethics committees deliberate and decide on complex contemporary ethical issues. To pursue their aims, they require adequate technical tools in order to deliberate and choose using new technologies of communication and information. These tools carry new problems with themselves, so committees must acquire a mixed nature, dynamic, interdisciplinary and inclusive. Ethics committees do not only constitute a control device, rather they are an interactive means for the creation of value in society.