Laura Stark’s ethnography of IRB decision-making unearthed two concerns: first, even though the committees were governed by ethical principles, the committees generated their own precedents for future decision-making; second, Stark witnessed unequal power relations within committee decision-making as a member’s expertise was accepted as a ‘warrant’. This article examines how these warrants are practiced within the decision-making process of New Zealand’s four Health and Disability Ethics Committees (HDECs or IRBs). More specifically, this article concerns these warrants during a committee’s decision (...) to consult with indigenous communities, a decision for which there exist no guidelines. The article ends by discussing ethical issues when observing in public places. (shrink)