As high-tech care decisions led to value clashes in hospital corridors, ethics committees developed to respond to diverse viewpoints, families’ concerns, and clinicians’ moral distress. They now exist in almost all US health care organizations.

Hospital ethics committees originated with concerns about legal liability, but today they educate, develop and implement policies, and review cases.

This article canvasses states’ legal prohibitions and challenges to them and considers consequences for clinicians and patients.

US case law protects a woman's right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment for her fetus on religious grounds.