God Matters for the Christian Clinical Ethics Consultant

Abstract

God matters to morality ontologically, epistemically, psychologically, normatively, and metaethically. As a result, requests that Christian clinical ethics consultants (CEC) eschew their religious beliefs when making substantive moral recommendations are problematic. Further, there are not good reasons for the Christian CEC to follow such a recommendation. Christian CECs should simply offer their moral judgment and reasoning for their judgment. They can try to offer reasons that non-Christians might find persuasive for their substantive moral judgments, but they should not refrain from making use of their own religious commitments when formulating their moral judgments and should not necessarily refrain from expressing those reasons, including religious reasons, when asked to support those moral judgments.