Medical Ethics Consultants, Are They the New Moral Authorities?

If an ethical issue arises during a conversation with a patient during treatment or examination, the health care professional sometimes has to advise the patient on the right thing to do. However, clinical doctors do not always have this opportunity, firstly, due to lack of time, and secondly, they do not always have enough ethical algorithms for the patient or his relatives. The widespread adoption of new biomedical technologies has caused a significant increase in requests for ethical counseling in clinical settings. In response to these circumstances, an institute of specialists in medical ethics was established in the United States. A new specialty was opened, as well as new positions in hospitals. Yet certification of medical ethics consultants is not the result of following any recognized authority, nor is it based on any argument or reasoning, but is promoted through political domineering. The curriculum is based on the assumption that there is a secular, substantive, canonical morality, when in fact there is none. Secular bioethics, with its completely falsified ‘moral authority’ and ‘consensus,’ imposes a certain vision of the good and a certain moral position on anyone, regardless of whether that person finds these ideas convincing. It is through political persuasion and forces that one particular and absolutely non-universal moral worldview is asserted as authoritative. Evaluation of the activities of specialists in medical ethics is of interest for studying the mechanisms of secularization of public consciousness, and is also relevant for analyzing further development of bioethics in Russia in case any similar trends emerge in our country.