A bioethicist provides support to staff, physicians, patients and their family members in dealing with ethical issues in a patient's care. This work involves ensuring that:
- Patients are at the centre of their care, with the information and support they need to make free and informed decisions about treatment in view of what matters to them.
- Reasonable, fair and transparent boundaries exist when individual preferences affect others.
- Mediation is offered to help identify common interests and resolve conflicts when parties disagree about patient care.
For example, Bioethicists are often contacted to help Substitute Decision-Makers when a patient can't express their own wishes. Sometimes a family member needs help understanding their new role. In other cases, the substitute decision-maker's views may differ from those expressed in the past by the patient.
Bioethicists also develop policies and guidelines, conduct research, and promote the ethical conduct of research on human subjects by reviewing protocols as members of the organization's Research Ethics Board (REB).
