Consultation-liaison psychiatry and clinical ethics. Historical parallels and diversions.

As clinical ethicists increasingly populate hospital settings, a definition of their roles and responsibilities vis à vis those of consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrists remains a matter of both interest and uncertainty. Both fields share certain evolutionary and ideological features, yet until very recently, psychiatry has ignored medical ethics, leaving the field to other medical specialties. This estrangement can be explained by psychiatry's traditional suspicion and devaluation of moral philosophy and its more recent wish to be identified more with biomedicine than with the "softer" social sciences and humanities. C-L psychiatry has both a lot to offer and a lot to learn from clinical ethics.