Dogs for Ethics Committees and Ethics Consultants

This month’s ABA Journal reports on the growing interest in the use of dogs in courthouses.  Perhaps the same can be adapted for use by hospital ethics committees.

If Duval County, Fla., Judge Emmet Ferguson has his way, there will be a dog in every courthouse across the country.  “Dogs put smiles on people’s faces, and there usually aren’t a lot of smiles in a courthouse,” says Ferguson, who works out of Jacksonville.  Ferguson is working to establish a service dog program in the Duval County court system. His effort reflects a small but growing international trend of using trained dogs in a variety of courthouse settings to reduce the tension inherent in the adversarial process.

Advocates say the dogs are used most often to calm witnesses and victims, especially children. But, they say, having a dog in the courthouse helps everyone.  The mere presence of dogs can be highly effective.  When you have opposing counsel down on his or her knees patting the dog before negotiations, that starts everything off in a friendlier way.