He brilliantly describes how the medical ethicists linger in the halls of Congress, between testifying at hearings and presenting at conferences.  They “serve medicine and ethics, but not patients.”  His descriptions conjure up a behind-the-scenes mastermind to me – the fictional “reasonable man” about whom I learned in law school, or an Aristotelian good man.  This man – The Ethicist – has divorced ethical decisions from patient care in a decisively clean way.