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233Governance quality indicators for organ procurement policiesPLoS ONE 16 (6). 2021.Background Consent policies for post-mortem organ procurement (OP) vary throughout Europe, and yet no studies have empirically evaluated the ethical implications of contrasting consent models. To fill this gap, we introduce a novel indicator of governance quality based on the ideal of informed support, and examine national differences on this measure through a quantitative survey of OP policy informedness and preferences in seven European countries. Methods Between 2017–2019, we conducted a conv…Read more
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37Cross-cultural perspectives on intelligent assistive technology in dementia care: comparing Israeli and German experts’ attitudesBMC Medical Ethics 25 (1): 1-13. 2024.Background Despite the great benefits of intelligent assistive technology (IAT) for dementia care – for example, the enhanced safety and increased independence of people with dementia and their caregivers – its practical adoption is still limited. The social and ethical issues pertaining to IAT in dementia care, shaped by factors such as culture, may explain these limitations. However, most studies have focused on understanding these issues within one cultural setting only. Therefore, the aim of…Read more
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98Healthcare provision, like many other sectors of society, is undergoing major changes due to the increased use of data-driven methods and technologies. This increased reliance on big data in medicine can lead to shifts in the norms that guide healthcare providers and patients. Continuous critical normative reflection is called for to track such potential changes. This article presents the results of an interview-based study with 20 German and Swiss experts from the fields of medicine, life scien…Read more
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15Planning later life with dementia: comparing family caregivers’ perspectives on biomarkers with laypersons’ attitudes towards genetic testing of dementia predictionNew Genetics and Society 39 (1): 52-79. 2020.Predictive medicine presents opportunities to consider later life under conditions of illness, such as dementia. This paper examines how family caregivers (N = 27) assess the opportunity of prediction and early diagnosis of dementia for oneself based on their particular experience. Furthermore, it compares their attitudes with laypersons’ attitudes (N = 43) towards genetic testing of APOE. By this, we elaborate how much personal experience impacts anticipation and affects, but also moral attitud…Read more
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11Exploring the Ethical Issues in Organ TransplantationIn Solveig Lena Hansen & Silke Schicktanz (eds.), Ethical Challenges of Organ Transplantation, Transcript Verlag. pp. 11-20. 2021.
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67Public Moralities Concerning Donation and Disposition of Organs: Results from a Cross-European StudyCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 17 (3): 308-317. 2008.There are not many international consensuses in the governance of biomedicine. One that exists concerns a general reluctance toward a commercialization of organ procurement. However, with reference to the problem of there is an increasingly louder call in ethical and legal discourse to and to establish a debate on financial incentives Other ethicists and jurists criticize this development, and warn of injustice, exploitation of the poor, and a commodification of the human body
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147The "spare parts person"? Conceptions of the human body and their implications for public attitudes towards organ donation and organ salePhilosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 4 4-. 2009.BackgroundThe increasing debate on financial incentives for organ donation raises concerns about a "commodification of the human body". Philosophical-ethical stances on this development depend on assumptions concerning the body and how people think about it. In our qualitative empirical study we analyze public attitudes towards organ donation in their specific relation to conceptions of the human body in four European countries (Cyprus, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden). This approach aims at…Read more
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248Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Ethikberatung im Rahmen der COVID-19-PandemieEthik in der Medizin 32 (2): 195-199. 2020.Das deutsche Gesundheitswesen steht durch die schnell steigende Anzahl an CO- VID-19-Erkrankten vor erheblichen Herausforderungen. In dieser Krisensituation sind alle Beteiligten mit ethischen Fragen konfrontiert, beispielsweise nach gerech- ten Verteilungskriterien bei begrenzten Ressourcen und dem gesundheitlichen Schutz des Personals angesichts einer bisher nicht therapierbaren Erkrankung. Daher werden schon jetzt klinische und ambulante Ethikberatungsangebote verstärkt mit Anfragen nach Unte…Read more
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36Why Public Moralities Matter—The Relevance of Socioempirical Premises for the Ethical Debate on Organ MarketsJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 39 (3): 217-222. 2014.The ongoing bioethical debate about organ markets rests not only on theoretical premises, but also on assumptions regarding public views of and attitudes toward organ donation that need closer socioempirical examination. Summarizing results from our previous qualitative social research in this field, this paper illustrates the ethical significance of such public moralities in two respects: On one hand, it analyzes the implicit bias of the common rhetoric of “organ scarcity” which motivates much …Read more
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42The ethics of ‘public understanding of ethics’—why and how bioethics expertise should include public and patients’ voicesMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 15 (2): 129-139. 2012.“Ethics” is used as a label for a new kind of expertise in the field of science and technology. At the same time, it is not clear what ethical expertise consists in and what its political status in modern democracies can be. Starting from the “participatory turn” in recent social research and policy, we will argue that bioethical reasoning has to include public views of and attitudes towards biomedicine. We will sketch the outlines of a bioethical conception of “public understanding of ethics,” …Read more
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74The Diversity of Responsibility: The Value of Explication and PluralizationMedicine Studies 3 (3): 131-145. 2012.Purpose Although the term “responsibility” plays a central role in bioethics and public health, its meaning and implications are often unclear. This paper defends the importance of a more systematic conception of responsibility to improve moral philosophical as well as descriptive analysis. Methods We start with a formal analysis of the relational conception of responsibility and its meta-ethical presuppositions. In a brief historical overview, we compare global-collective, professional, persona…Read more
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12The Diversity of Responsibility: The Value of Explication and PluralizationMedicine Studies 3 (3): 131-145. 2012.Purpose Although the term “responsibility” plays a central role in bioethics and public health, its meaning and implications are often unclear. This paper defends the importance of a more systematic conception of responsibility to improve moral philosophical as well as descriptive analysis. Methods We start with a formal analysis of the relational conception of responsibility and its meta-ethical presuppositions. In a brief historical overview, we compare global-collective, professional, persona…Read more
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45"One man's trash is another man's treasure": exploring economic and moral subtexts of the "organ shortage" problem in public views on organ donationJournal of Medical Ethics 35 (8): 473-476. 2009.The debate over financial incentives and market models for organ procurement represents a key trend in recent bioethics. In this paper, we wish to reassess one of its central premises—the idea of organ shortage. While the problem is often presented as an objective statistical fact that can be taken for granted, we will take a closer look at the underlying framework expressed in the common rhetoric of “scarcity”, “shortage” or “unfulfilled demand”. On the basis of theoretical considerations as we…Read more
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48‘In a completely different light’? The role of ‘being affected’ for the epistemic perspectives and moral attitudes of patients, relatives and lay peopleMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 11 (1): 57-72. 2008.In this paper, we explore and discuss the use of the concept of being affected in biomedical decision making processes in Germany. The corresponding German term ‘Betroffenheit’ characterizes on the one hand a relation between a state of affairs and a person and on the other an emotional reaction that involves feelings like concern and empathy with the suffering of others. An example for the increasing relevance of being affected is the postulation of the participation of people with disabilities…Read more
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75Erratum to: The ethics of 'public understanding of ethics'—why and how bioethics expertise should include public and patients' voicesMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 15 (2): 251-251. 2012.“Ethics” is used as a label for a new kind of expertise in the field of science and technology. At the same time, it is not clear what ethical expertise consists in and what its political status in modern democracies can be. Starting from the “participatory turn” in recent social research and policy, we will argue that bioethical reasoning has to include public views of and attitudes towards biomedicine. We will sketch the outlines of a bioethical conception of “public understanding of ethics,” …Read more
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24Aging 4.0? Rethinking the ethical framing of technology-assisted eldercareHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43 (3): 1-19. 2021.Technological approaches are increasingly discussed as a solution for the provision of support in activities of daily living as well as in medical and nursing care for older people. The development and implementation of such assistive technologies for eldercare raise manifold ethical, legal, and social questions. The discussion of these questions is influenced by theoretical perspectives and approaches from medical and nursing ethics, especially the principlist framework of autonomy, non-malefic…Read more
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9Ethical, social and psychological impacts of genomic risk communication (edited book)Routledge. 2021.This volume presents the ethical implications of risk information as related to genetics and other health data for policy decisions at clinical, research and societal levels. Ethical, Social and Psychological Impacts of Genomic Risk Communication examines the introduction of new types of health risk information based on faster, cheaper and larger sets of genetic or genomic analysis. Synthesising the results of a five-year interdisciplinary project, it explores the unsolved ethical and social que…Read more
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Ethical Consideration about Health Risk Communication and Professional ResponsibilityIn Ulrik Kihlbom, Mats G. Hansson & Silke Schicktanz (eds.), Ethical, social and psychological impacts of genomic risk communication, Routledge. 2021.
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7Moral motivation regarding dementia risk testing among affected persons in Germany and IsraelJournal of Medical Ethics 48 (11): 861-867. 2021.Recent advances in biomarkers may soon make it possible to identify persons at high risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease at a presymptomatic stage. Popular demand for testing is increasing despite the lack of cure and effective prevention options and despite uncertainties regarding the predictive value of biomarker tests. This underscores the relevance of the ethical, cultural and social implications of predictive testing and the need to advance the bioethical debate beyond considerations of …Read more
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13The emergence of temporality in attitudes towards cryo-fertility: a case study comparing German and Israeli social egg freezing usersHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 44 (2): 1-26. 2022.Assistive reproductive technologies are increasingly used to control the biology of fertility and its temporality. Combining historical, theoretical, and socio-empirical insights, this paper aims at expanding our understanding of the way temporality emerges and is negotiated in the contemporary practice of cryopreservation of reproductive materials. We first present an historical overview of the practice of cryo-fertility to indicate the co-production of technology and social constructions of te…Read more
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327Goal: To assess public knowledge and attitudes towards the family’s role in deceased organ donation in Europe. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in CINHAL, MEDLINE, PAIS Index, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Web of Science on December 15th, 2017. Eligibility criteria were socio-empirical studies conducted in Europe from 2008 to 2017 addressing either knowledge or attitudes by the public towards the consent system, including the involvement of the family in the decision-making process, for post-m…Read more
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9Anti-AgingIn Michael Fuchs (ed.), Handbuch Alter Und Altern: Anthropologie – Kultur – Ethik, J.b. Metzler. pp. 253-264. 2021.Unter dem Begriff ›Anti-Aging‹ wird seit etwa drei Jahrzehnten eine wachsende Anzahl medizinischer wie außermedizinischer Präparate bzw. Verfahren konzipiert, entwickelt und eingesetzt, die allgemein der Bekämpfung des Alterns dienen sollen. Die so genannte Anti-Aging-Medizin will in den Alterungsprozess des menschlichen Körpers eingreifen, um ihn zu verlangsamen, aufzuhalten oder rückgängig zu machen. Dabei variieren die konkreten Angriffspunkte, Vorgehensweisen und Zielsetzungen der einzelnen …Read more
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14Ethical Challenges of Organ Transplantation (edited book)Transcript Verlag. 2021.This collection features comprehensive overviews of the various ethical challenges in organ transplantation. International readings well-grounded in the latest developments in the life sciences are organized into systematic sections and engage with one another, offering complementary views. All core issues in the global ethical debate are covered: donating and procuring organs, allocating and receiving organs, as well as considering alternatives. Due to its systematic structure, the volume provi…Read more
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28Fünfter Gentechnologiebericht: Sachstand und Perspektiven für Forschung und Anwendung (edited book). 2021.
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22Bioethics and the argumentative legacy of atrocities in medical history: Reflections on a complex relationshipBioethics 35 (6): 499-507. 2021.Slippery slope‐, taboo‐breaking‐ or Nazi‐analogy‐arguments are common, but not uncontroversial examples of the complex relationship between bioethics and the various ways of using historical arguments in these debates. In our analysis we examine first the relationship between bioethics and medical history both as separate disciplines and as argumentative practices. Secondly, we then analyse six common types of historical arguments in bioethics (slippery slope‐, analogy‐, continuity‐, knockout/ta…Read more
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23Critical analysis of communication strategies in public health promotion: An empirical‐ethical study on organ donation in GermanyBioethics 35 (2): 161-172. 2021.Given the need for organs, public organizations use social marketing strategies to increase the number of donors. Their campaigns employ a variety of moral appeals. However, their effects on audiences are unclear. We identified 14 campaigns in Germany from over the last 20 years. Our approach combined a multimodal analysis of categorized posters with a qualitative analysis of responses, collected in interviews or focus groups, of 53 persons who were either skeptical or undecided about organ dona…Read more
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15XenotransplantationIn Johann S. Ach & Dagmar Borchers (eds.), Handbuch Tierethik: Grundlagen – Kontexte – Perspektiven, J.b. Metzler. pp. 288-294. 2018.Als Xenotransplantation werden medizinische Interventionen bezeichnet, die die Transplantation oder Infusion lebender tierischer Zellen, Gewebe oder Organe in den Menschen beinhalten. Der Begriff schließt auch all jene Maßnahmen ein, in denen menschliche Körperflüssigkeiten, Zellen, Gewebe oder Organe exvivo in Kontakt mit lebenden tierischen Zellen, Gewebe oder Organen kommen. Im weiteren Sinne steht der Begriff Xenotransplantation für jede Form von artenübergreifender Transplantation.Der in de…Read more
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4Introduction: Why Compare the Practice and Norms of Surrogacy and Egg Donation? A Brief Overview of a Comparative and Interdisciplinary JourneyIn Sayani Mitra, Silke Schicktanz & Tulsi Patel (eds.), Cross-Cultural Comparisons on Surrogacy and Egg Donation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives From India, Germany and Israel, Springer Verlag. pp. 1-10. 2018.This chapter gives a brief overview of the composition of the volume and explains why it is important to undertake a detailed scholarly analysis and comparison of the following ethico-legal regimes of surrogacy and egg donation: the permissive-unregulated but transitory regime of India; the permissive regime of Israel, although highly regulated by professional, medical and religious norms, and the extremely restrictive regime of Germany, being legally permeable for particular forms of cross-bord…Read more
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4Beyond Relativism: Comparing the Practice and Norms of Surrogacy in India, Israel, and GermanyIn Sayani Mitra, Silke Schicktanz & Tulsi Patel (eds.), Cross-Cultural Comparisons on Surrogacy and Egg Donation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives From India, Germany and Israel, Springer Verlag. pp. 103-123. 2018.My following comparative analysis is based on two main questions: How can we best understand and describe the social practices of modern medicine in a particular cultural context? And: What can we learn for our moral thinking from such a comparative approach? I will answer these two questions by engaging the comprehensive studies from law, medical sociology/anthropology and ethics in this volume from three different cultural/national contexts: Germany, Israel and India in a fictional, comparativ…Read more