Clinical ethical consultants are subject to an unavoidable conflict of interest. On the one hand, their work requires that they be independent. Ethics consultants are not, and cannot be, agents. They act on behalf only of doing the right thing. On the other hand, incentives attached to their role chip relentlessly at independence. They receive both tangible and intangible benefits from their membership in medical communities. This is a problem without any solution, but it can at least be ameliorated through careful management.