I feel like an extreme view would be to say any ethics board is better than no ethics board. If you disagree with that statement then I think the question is:

I feel like an extreme view would be to say any ethics board is better than no ethics board. If you disagree with that statement then I think the question is: Was this ethics board bad enough that it was worse than no ethics board? And, I trust that you're being charitable enough to believe that the people that wanted the board removed asked the same, very basic, ethical question. On the other hand - it might be easier to think they didn't ask or think about that question and discard their position based on what could frankly be called a strawman.