La nozione di neutralità nella consulenza di etica clinica. The notion of neutrality in clinical ethics consultation.

Ethics consultation as a function performed by ethics committees, small groups of ethicists or individual consultants has developed in North America starting from the ‘70s. Despite the increasing implementation of ethics support services globally and a great deal of effort towards professionalization in the field, it is still an open question whether or not the consultant should remain neutral when her intervention is requested to address ethical conflicts and uncertainties. In particular, it is not settled whether she is allowed to express an opinion, make a recommendation or give advice. This work is meant to analyze the notion of neutrality in ethics consultation through the critical assessment of different theoretical positions. The first chapter explains what ethics consultation is and deals with, by analyzing well-known American publications; the second explores the most common theses on the role or approach of the ethics consultant, as well as different interpretations of the terms “recommendation” and “advice”; the third focuses on the possibility and ethical acceptability of notions like ethics expertise and moral authority uncovering the main related critical positions; the last chapter offers an interpretation of the role of the consultant by considering the nature and goals of ethics consultation and it proposes four specifications of the term neutrality when it is applied: (1) to the parties involved in the consult, including the ethics consultant, (2) to the argumentations offered by the consultant to help parties make a decision, (3) to the values and norms in the case discussed, (4) to the outcome of the consultation process