Medical Ethics
The Medical Ethics working group examines the foundations of practical ethics as well as specific contexts from the field of medicine. The group's research work is orientated towards the existential questions of Philosophy on the one hand, while at the same time focusing on the practical requirements of clinical and regulatory practice.
Together with the working groups for the History and Philosophy of Science of Medicine (Prof. Dr Lara Keuck) and Medical Law (Jun. Prof. Friederike Gebhard), we are currently developing the area of 'Medical Humanities' and are participating in the new degree programme for medicine with interdisciplinary courses.
Our research activities currently focus on questions of distributive justice in medicine, efficiency and non-discrimination as well as practical follow-up questions to theories of personal identity.
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
After completing my two-subject Bachelor's degree in German Studies and Philosophy at the University of Bonn, I decided to continue with a Master's programme in both subjects. While I specialised in literary studies and linguistics in German studies, I focused primarily on the history of philosophy and theoretical philosophy in Philosophy. It is therefore no coincidence that my master's thesis also deals with personal identity from a theoretical perspective. I would also like to follow on from this with my master's thesis in German Studies, in which I deal with personal identity from the perspective of literary studies by examining the academic achievements of autobiographies and autofictions with regard to identity construction and deconstruction.
Although I mainly dealt with questions of theoretical Philosophy during my studies, my focus has shifted towards practical Philosophy. Since 2023, I have been working on the project "NANoSoGT - Normative Assessment of Novel Somatic Genomic Therapies" at the Institute for Medical Humanities at the University Hospital Bonn, which is dedicated to the ethical re-evaluation of genomic therapies. Since July 2024, I have also been a doctoral student and academic co-worker in the Medical Ethics working group. In my doctoral thesis, which is supervised by Prof Dr Annette Dufner, I would like to address the issue of distributive justice in the medical context and investigate the extent to which this is counteracted by economically motivated decision-making patterns.
So even though my focus of research today is mainly on medical ethics, I still try to keep up to date with questions of theoretical Philosophy. The history of philosophy and literature also continue to occupy the rest of my time.
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.