Press Releases

Burnout, chronic migraine, male menopause – are these ailments real conditions or are they simply made up illnesses? Are social problems being reframed as diseases? At the public Bioethics Forum of 25 February 2015, the German Ethics Council discussed the balancing act between unwarranted medicalization and essential therapy.

In its opinion published today, the German Ethics Council addresses the controversy concerning brain death. The Council calls for improvements in information and communication surrounding organ donation. Moreover, it calls for legislation regarding measures related to organ protection.

At its public plenary meeting on 27 November, the German Ethics Council addressed the topic of assisted suicide and plans to issue a recommendation on the basis of this discussion.

Day-to-day hospital routine caught between ethical requirements and economic constraints – this was the topic of the public autumn conference of the German Ethics Council which welcomed visitors to Dresden on 22 October 2014.

In its opinion published today concerning the topic of the proscriptions against incest, the majority of the members of the German Ethics Council advocate that consensual intercourse between adult siblings should in future not be treated under criminal law.

In the estimation of the German Ethics Council, the most recent developments in stem cell research require no urgent legislative measures in addition to the ban on cloning. Nonetheless, the Council sees a need for clarification in regard to the far-reaching ethical and legal questions that arise particularly in conjunction with two possible areas of application for new stem cell technologies.