Press Release 03/2005
Berlin, 23 June 2005

National Ethics Council holds last meeting of its first term

This Thursday morning the German National Ethics Council held the last meeting of its first term.

The unfinished discussion of two Opinions continued at this meeting.

The Opinion on predictive health information is due for publication before the end of this summer.

A part of the second Opinion - the considerations on advance directives - was already published at the beginning of this month. The complete Opinion on end-of-life care is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

Issues of predictive diagnosis are currently also being debated in a context of international cooperation. This includes detailed discussions with the French National Ethics Commission (CCNE) and consultations with the Nuffield Council (United Kingdom).

These contacts represent an extension of the international collaborative framework built up systematically over the last four years, which has also involved working meetings with the US President's Council on Bioethics, the Swiss National Ethics Commission, the United Kingdom Human Genetics Commission, the Nordic Committee on Bioethics and the Greek and Austrian Ethics Councils.

Further information is available at http://www.ethikrat.org

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