If you are considering serving on an ethics committee, whether by invitation or your own initiative, it is important that you first understand the role of an ethics committee. There are common misconceptions about ethics committees’ function and basic purpose. There is significant confusion about what ethics committees actually do. It is often erroneously believed that ethics committees direct patient care and that clinicians are obliged to follow the recommendations of the committee. This is far from the truth: ethics committees are not the “ethics police.” In typical practice, ethics committee consultations are strictly advisory. This means that the recommendations they might issue are not binding for the attending physician or anyone else. In that regard, an ethics consultation is similar to other requests for consultation. An attending physician might request a consultation from nephrology but is not required to follow the recommendations from the nephrologist. Also, ethics committees do much more than ethics consultation. Ethics committees have three functions: education, policy development and review, and consultation. Ethics committees should neither desire nor have the authority to force people to choose a particular course of action. So, if you are the type of person in whom colleagues confide and whose judgment is valued when colleagues are wrestling with issues and if you have a passion not only for attempting to resolve ethical problems but also for equipping others with the ethical background to help them resolve problems themselves, participation in an ethics committee can be a meaningful and fruitful mechanism for you to serve your institution and your colleagues.