Press Releases

Antibiotic resistance leads to an estimated 25,000 fatalities per year in Europe and is currently increasing rapidly worldwide. Experts warn that even simple microbial infections could once again become acute threats for individuals and the population at large. The German Ethics Council discussed the ethical and societal challenges arising from this for patients and doctors on 23 November 2016 in Berlin during a public event in the "Forum Bioethics" series.

At the invitation of the German Ethics Council, representatives of the ethics councils of Germany, France, and the UK convened in Berlin on 21 October for their 7th trilateral meeting. At the centre of attention for the joint public discussions was the topic of genome editing.

What can and should ethical advice achieve? This question was discussed by the German Ethics Council on 21 and 22 September, at a parliamentary evening with members of the German Bundestag, and at a public meeting with five experts.

More than 500 people attended the German Ethics Council’s annual meeting on 22 June on the topic: "Access to the human genome: New possibilities and their ethical evaluation."

The newly composed German Ethics Council met on Thursday, April 28, 2016 for its constituent meeting in Berlin and elected theologian and ethicist Peter Dabrock as its Chair. His Vice-Chairs are neuroscientist Katrin Amunts, psychologist and gerontologist Andreas Kruse, and medical ethicist Claudia Wiesemann.

In its Opinion published today, the German Ethics Council presents recommendations for orienting hospital care towards patient welfare.