ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how legal regulations are brought into play when nine Norwegian clinical ethics committees deliberate a paper case about withholding life-prolonging treatment that is, whether to opt for a 'do not attempt resuscitation (DNAR) code'. It is a part of a national research project initiated in 2004 to assess the quality of the Norwegian hospital ethics committees' work and to facilitate exchange of experiences. In most of the committees some members asked what kind of actions can be justified within the law. Only three committees mentioned that they would have considered seeking legal advice. The chapter first presents how the committees discussed some of the most pressing ethicolegal questions in the case, and then explains how the committee members perceived the role of health law in this kind of deliberation. Five of the nine committees did mention the legal directive issued by the Norwegian Board of Health in 2002 in their deliberations.
