Ethics of Medicine
The Ethics of Medicine working group analyses fundamental ethical questions that arise in medical practice, research and health policy regulation. The focus is on combining philosophical reflection with the analysis of concrete challenges in clinical practice and in the public health system.
Our research focuses on the conditions of ethical action in medicine, which is increasingly characterised by technological innovations, ecological transformation processes and social and cultural diversity. We are concerned with questions of justice and responsibility, the design of fair allocation decisions and a just future medicine, dealing with vulnerability and cultural differences as well as the ethical implications of biomedical innovations and digital technologies.
The working group is anchored in the Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology and at the same time closely linked to the medical school OWL. This interdisciplinary environment enables us to establish a productive dialogue between humanities analysis and medical practice.
We work together with partners from the fields of medicine, law, history and cultural studies. These include the working groups for the History and Philosophy of Science of Medicine (Prof. Dr Lara Keuck) and for Medical Law (Junior Prof. Dr Friederike Gebhard), the Clinical Ethics Committee of the University Hospital Bielefeld-Bethel (Tanja Kirchner) and the Institute for the Study of Science (ISoS).
Research specialisms
Our work is divided into several thematic focuses that are closely interlinked and combine theoretical and practical questions of medical ethics.
- Distributive justice, public health & allocation
- Culture & Identity
- Vulnerability & non-discrimination
- Research ethics
- Biomedical innovations
- Digitalisation & AI
- Responsibility
- Green Health Care
- Ethics counselling
Team
Head of the group
- Prof. Dr. Annette Dufner
As a philosopher and medical ethicist, I form a content-related bridge between the Department of Philosophy and the newly founded Medical School OWL at Bielefeld University. Together with Prof. Dr Lara Keuck (History and Philosophy of Science in Medicine) and Junior Prof. Dr Friederike Gebhard (Medical Law), I head the Medical Humanities department at the Faculty of Medicine and am also active in the Department of Philosophy.
My work focuses in particular on normative ethics and medical ethics, as well as legal and social philosophy and questions of personal identity.
My current research questions in the field of normative ethics include problems of distributive justice and fair aggregation as well as the question of which allocation criteria would be discriminatory under conditions of scarcity.
In terms of medical ethics, these include the efficient and non-discriminatory allocation of scarce resources in transplantation medicine and in pandemics, the handling of predictive uncertainty and probabilities as well as bioethical and population-ethical follow-up questions of personal identity.
You can find more information here.
Researchers / Lecturers
- Dr. Serap Ergin Aslan
- Sandra Löhr
I have been a research assistant in the the Medical Ethics working group since August 2024. I studied both the two-subject Bachelor's programme in Philosophy & Art/Music (B.A.) and the Master's programme in Philosophy (M.A., degree in 2023) at Bielefeld University.
In my master's thesis "Human Dignity and the Violation of the Self", I focussed on the question of whether typical violations of human dignity can be understood as violations of the self. As part of my research, I also looked at clinical-psychological theories on the development of psychological traumatisation and its consequences. This has inspired me to continue my interdisciplinary work in the future and to delve deeper into topics that touch on both Philosophy and, for example, clinical psychology and psychotherapy.
In the future, I would therefore like to focus on specific questions in the field of ethics in psychiatry and psychotherapy. I am currently preparing for a doctorate/Phd studies in this context.
Research interests:
Human dignity
Ethics of psychiatry & psychotherapy
(Moral) responsibility
Medical ethics- Jan Schnalke
Although I mainly dealt with questions of theoretical Philosophy in my philosophy studies - such as the question of personal identity - my work has shifted towards practical Philosophy. Since I was employed as a research assistant in the project "NANoSoGT - Normative Assessment of Novel Somatic Genomic Therapies" at the Institute for Medical Humanities at the University of Bonn, I have mainly been dealing with questions of medical ethics. In July 2024, I started working as a doctoral student and researcher in the Medical Ethics working goup. In my doctoral thesis, which is supervised by Prof Dr Annette Dufner, I am investigating the concept of the common good and working out the extent to which this concept can be used to address issues in medical ethics.
Research interests
- Medical Ethics
- Normative Ethics
- Theories of Personal Identity
- Metaphysics/Ontology
You can find more information here.
Research assistants
- Gesa Tefett
After completing my degree in healthcare and nursing, I worked in an interdisciplinary intensive care unit. During this time, I was able to gain valuable experience in acute and intensive care medicine and gain deep insights into the challenges of modern patient care. Parallel to my work, I started studying human medicine at Bielefeld University in 2021. During my studies, I was particularly interested in the medical humanities, especially medical ethics. I am fascinated by the question of how ethical principles can be implemented in the often hectic and complex daily clinical routine. I am particularly interested in how ethical considerations can shape medical decision-making and sustainably improve patient care. Through my professional and academic career, I would like to help build a bridge between medical practice and ethical standards and promote more humane, responsible medicine.
Associate members
- Prof. Dr. Ralf Stoecker
You can find information about Mr Stoecker here:
https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/philosophie/personen/stoecker/
- Dr. Martina Herrmann
- Dr. Roland Kipke
You can find information about Mr Kipke here:
https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/philosophie/personen/kipke/
- Dr. Shingo Segawa
You can find information about Mr Segawa here:
https://www.uni-muenster.de/KFG-Normenbegruendung/en/segawa.html
- Tanja Kirchner
You can find further information about Mrs Kirchner here:
https://evkb.de/kliniken-zentren/besondere-angebote/klinische-ethik/
- Adriano Mannino
Clinical Ethics
Our group cooperates with the clinical ethics committee at Ev. Klinikum Bethel (Universitätsklinikum OWL, Campus Bielefeld-Bethel). Further information can be found here.