Ethics Review Committee

The Public Health Ethics Review Committee convenes a diverse group of community volunteers to:

  • Engage in a process of deliberate and transparent decision-making
  • Review actual and potential public health ethical dilemmas
  • Provide recommendations to Public Health, management, and community partners on ethical issues

Ethical considerations are important when deliberating public health issues such as:

  • How should Public Health allocate limited resources (such as vaccines or ventilators) during a pandemic?
  • How should Public Health avoid actual or perceived conflict of interest when working with vendors?
  • When should a person be isolated or quarantined to protect the health of others?

The committee uses the Public Health Code of Ethics as a framework for conducting ethical analyses.

Ethics review committee charter and framework

Interested in joining the committee?

The Public Health Ethics Review Committee is composed of community members and professionals who meet to understand and deliberate on ethical issues relating to public health policies, systems, and operations. The committee uses the Public Health Code of Ethics as a framework to review actual and potential public health ethical dilemmas. After reviewing an ethical issue, the committee provides recommendations to Public Health staff, management, and community partners.

Please see the recruitment page for more information. 

Topic selection

The Executive Board of the Public Health Ethics Review Committee will screen and generate topics to consider for full review by the committee. Topics for review must focus on department policy or operations, and will not include individual or group behavior. Suspected unethical behavior on the part of staff will be referred to the appropriate Public Health program manager or leadership team representative.

If you have a topic that the ethics committee should review, please submit your suggestion below.