Ethical Foundations of Transcultural Communication 3: Bioethics

The course deals with some ethical questions of the beginning, the progress and the end of human life. Students are introduced to selected topics of bioethics. On the basis of the facts they will form their own opinion on selected topics and will be able to discuss them.

Topics: 1. Human life (the value of human life and the human person – differences of concepts). 2. Defining and background of bioethics. 3. The beginning of human life (the issue of abortion, prenatal diagnosis, contraception, sterilization, assisted fertilization, surrogate motherhood). 4. Genetic testing and research on animals and human subjects. 5. Transplantation medicine and biobanking. 6. Eugenics. 7. New forms of life. 8. Ethical aspects of the end of life (people accompanying the terminally ill and the dying, the relationship to pain, suffering and death, ineffective treatment interruption, euthanasia as “assisted suicide”, care of a dead body).

DÜWELL, M., STEIGLEDER, K. (vyd.): Bioethik. Eine Einführung. Frankfurt a. Main, Suhrkamp 2003.
IRRGANG, B. Einführung in die Bioethik. München, W. Fink Verlag 2005.