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The St. Jude Bioethics Consult Service offers guidance if difficult patient care or treatment decisions arise while you are at St. Jude.
The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital community shares a mission—to advance cures and help prevent life-threatening childhood diseases. We carry out this mission using research and treatment.
The hospital’s Bioethics Consult Service offers guidance if difficult patient care or treatment decisions arise while you are at St. Jude. Our bioethics consultants do not make decisions. They are available to discuss ethical questions related to St. Jude policies or research. They work with patients and families, as well as with St. Jude staff and researchers.
Bioethics focuses on understanding and resolving issues that come up during medical care or biomedical research. The goal of bioethics is to help people with different values and goals make decisions about health, health care, technology, or related topics.
Any patient, family member, or St. Jude staff member may ask for an ethics consultation (consult). If you ask for one, your identity can remain private. But the process works best when the people and issues involved are talked about openly.
Bioethics consultants can help when:
The hospital’s Bioethics Consult Service provides ethics support to the entire St. Jude community.
Our bioethics consultants are specially trained to help with issues related to children, medical care, and research. They are experienced in working with families, health care providers, and researchers. They also work to help improve understanding and awareness of ethical issues related to children, health care, and research.
No fees are charged for this service. All consults are confidential.
The St. Jude Ethics Committee oversees the Bioethics Consult Service. Committee members review the services we provide on a regular schedule. The ethics committee includes St. Jude employees from various departments and community members.
Our consultants work directly with the person who asks for their services. They will not make medical decisions.
When you request a consultation, the ethics consultant on call will contact you and ask for basic information. A consultant will respond to most requests within 1 week. Urgent requests receive a response within 24 hours.
The ethics consultants will:
The consultant may also:
To request a bioethics consult:
Email ethics@stjude.org
Call the hospital operator at 901-595-3300 and ask for the Bioethics Consult Service