Press Releases

As a part of its Bioethics Forum series, the German Ethics Council yesterday (Wednesday) debated the issue of whether the state can require everyone to make a decision about organ donation.

In the context of its consideration of reproductive medicine the German Ethics Council is to prepare an Opinion on the subject of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which is expected to be issued by the summer of 2011. This was decided at the Plenary Meeting held in Berlin yesterday (Thursday).

Yesterday, on Thursday, the German Ethics Council commenced its consultations on questions of reproductive medicine. Introductory presentations by Jochen Taupitz and Regine Kollek on legal and medical aspects of new developments in the field of reproductive medicine formed the prelude to the discussions, which are expected to result in a Council Opinion.

Last Wednesday, the German Ethics Council devoted its Bioethics Forum to the topic "Intersexuality – life between the sexes". Its aim was to remove the taboos from the social debate on intersexuality, to question prevailing socially constructed sexual norms and to start a discussion on the social acceptance of intersexuals.

Under the title “Human Biobanks for Research”, the German Ethics Council today issued its second Opinion.

More than 300 people from all walks of life attended the German Ethics Council’s second Annual Meeting, held in Berlin on 20 May 2010, on the subject of “Migration and health: cultural diversity as a challenge to medical care”.