Hidden in Plain Sight: Professionalization, Accreditation, and the Legitimacy of Clinical Ethics

A recent article by physician Ronald Dworkin, echoing research from the last five years, suggests that physicians find little value in clinical ethics consultations. At the same time, clinical ethicists have worked to create more structures and standards to ground the field's professionalization in health care. Why the disconnect? We suggest three reasons: internal professionalization work is opaque to those outside of the discipline, weak external accreditation requirements imply a lack of professionalization of ethics, and the fundamental nature of clinical ethics is distinct from other disciplines.