Philosophy and Medical Ethics
Philosophy and Medical Ethics
The research work of the group is oriented towards the existential questions of philosophy while also being focused on the practical requirements in clinical and regulatory practices in medicine.
In the field of teaching, the group is collaborating with the History and Philosophy of Medicine (Prof. Dr. Lara Keuck) and Medical Law (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Friederike Gebhard) in establishing the new medical degree program.
Current topics
Personal identity and ethics. Annette Dufner takes over an entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Together with further experts, Annette Dufner recommends a less restrictive approach to sedation requests at the end of life.
Professor Dufner holds background conversation with Spiegel science editor about a new study in the area of genetics.
Together with a group of young researchers, Jan Schnalke publishes an article in Nature on ethical pricing of gene therapies.
Research colloquium
The research colloquium 'Practical Philosophy' takes place fortnightly on Wednesdays from 16:00-18:00.
You can find the program here.
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: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/philosophie/personen/dufner/
Researchers/ Lecturers
- Dr. Serap Ergin Aslan
serap.ergin@uni-bielefeld.de
Bielefeld University
Department of Medical Humanities / Dept. of Philosophy
P.O. Box 100131
33501 Bielefeld
Building X A4-252Further information can be found here.
- Adriano Mannino
You can find information about Mr Mannino here.
- 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 assistents
- 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.
- Dr. Martina Herrmann
- Dr. Roland Kipke
You can find information about Mr Kipke here.
- Tanja Kirchner
You can find information about Mrs Kirchner here:
https://evkb.de/kliniken-zentren/besondere-angebote/klinische-ethik/
- Dr. Shingo Segawa
Dr Shingo Segawa received his Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Sociology from Rikkyo University and Hitotsubashi University in Japan. For his bachelor's thesis, he conducted interviews and participant observations in an urban area where many elderly, single people and people in need of care live. In his master's thesis, he focussed on the emergence of the subject in Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit". In his PhD thesis in philosophy at the University of Münster, he dealt with the question of whether the concept of the person is helpful in the debates about the beginning of life (abortion) and the end of life (euthanasia and respect for people with dementia). He is currently interested in whether and how people can show solidarity in a culturally diverse society.
Main areas of research
- Public health in culturally diverse societies
- Philosophy of the person
- Autonomy / respect for autonomy
- Ethical aspects of dementia
Publications (selection)
- Segawa, Shingo. Der Begriff der Person in der biomedizinischen Ethik. Münster. 2020.
- Segawa, Shingo. & Alpinar-Segawa, Zümrüt (2026): How can we foster solidarity in a culturally diverse society? Taking dementia prevention through technology as an example. In: Monash Bioethics Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-026-00283-4.
- Segawa, Shingo. & Alpinar-Segawa, Zümrüt. (2025): Limits to respect for autonomy principle when caring for people with dementia: Rethinking respect for people with dementia. In: Ethics & Bioethics (in Central Europe) 15 (1-2): 79-99. https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2025-0007.
- Andreoletti, Mattia; Lazzaroni, Cynthia; Petersen, Niklas; Segawa, Shingo; Leibing, Annette; Schicktanz, Silke; Blassime, Alessandro. (2023): Optimising the Aging Brain: The BEAD Study on the Ethics of Dementia Prevention. In: The Journal of Frailty & Aging 12. 111-16. https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2023.6.
- Segawa, Shingo. (2021): How is the concept of person useful for biomedical ethics? In: Journal of Philosophical Research 75 (3). 433-55. https://doi.org/10.3196/004433021833548642 (Deutsch).
- Segawa, Shingo. (2018): The limit of the concept of person and its validity in biomedical ethics. In: 生命倫理 29 (Journal of Japan Association for Bioethics 29). Japan Association for Bioethics. 22-30 (Japanese).
- Konstantin Weber
You can find information about Mr Weber here.
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.