ArticleJournal of bioethical inquiry2025
The New Organization of Ethics Committees in Italy: What is the Future of Clinical Ethics?
Article in Journal of bioethical inquiry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Hospital ethics committees: responsibilities, competencies and challenges.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Including gender data in electronic health records to improve the care provided to transgender and non-binary patients in Quebec: A queer bioethics analysis.International journal of transgender health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn Italy, clinical ethics is not well institutionalized. On February 7, 2023, the Italian Ministry of Health published four long-awaited decrees regarding the reorganization of ethics committees.
aimThe aim of this article is twofold: firstly, we aim to briefly summarize the development of clinical ethics in Italy from a legislative point of view; secondly, we aim to examine how Italian regions are implementing the part of the new decrees on the organization of ethics committees that concerns clinical ethics.
methodsAs for the first aim, we conducted a critical interpretive review (CIR). The search was restricted to the opinions offered by the Italian National Bioethics Committee (CNB) and to the major Italian legislative decrees on the topic. Regarding the second aim, we conducted an online search through Regional Official Bulletins of each Italian region.
resultsOur analysis showed that despite the recommendations from the CNB to differentiate Research Ethics Committees (RECs) and Clinical Ethics Committees (CECs), over the years legislative attention has mainly focused on RECs and pharmacological matters. The new decrees allow regions to be flexible in organizing their activities. However, it emerged that only four regions (Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Puglia, Emilia-Romagna) have split the roles, while all the other regions have entrusted both roles to a single committee.
conclusionThe risk for Italy is to take a step backward in the development of clinical ethics. Possible solutions could be either making Local Ethics Committees (CELs) mandatory or institutionalizing Ethics Consultation services (ECSs).
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