[Tasks and criteria for health care ethics committees]

This article provides a review on health care ethics committees and clinical ethics consultation in Germany. After a definition of these new institutions in the German health care system, detailed information on development, structures, implementation process and tasks of health care committees is provided. The three main tasks of health care ethics committees, clinical ethics consultation, development of ethical guidelines, and teaching and continuing medical education in clinical ethics are reported. Finally the author discusses the current professionalization and likely future developments of the field.