Ethics in the Life Sciences
Experimental research in the life sciences, as well as in various fields of medicine, computer science, technical sciences, and psychology, raises a multitude of ethical questions. Human subjects or patients may be involved in studies. Animal experiments may be planned and carried out. Nano, bio, and genetic engineering can also pose dangers and risks that can affect humans and nature. Which are the ethical dilemmas involved? How can they be analysed? Researchers should have necessary skills to clarify the ethical responsibilities in the various fields involved. What are the moral rights and obligations that need to be considered in life science research? What does it mean to conduct research and development responsibly? And what is the responsibility of science to society in the first place? These and related questions will be discussed in this course. The course also offers an introduction to the fundamentals of ethics.
Mandatory module in the Master's program in Molecular Life Science. The course can be taken as an elective in other programs including hearing acoustics/audiological technology, medical informatics, medical engineering, and psychology.
Every Wednesday during the summer semester, 1:15–4:00 p.m.
Module coordinator (ad interim): Prof. Dr. Cornelius Borck
The course includes presentations by participants and is a lecture series with lecturers from the Institute for the History of Medicine and Science Studies:
Course content:
- Why do researchers in the life sciences need ethics competence, and what kind of ethics do they need?
- Experiments on humans and animals
- Responsibility and technology assessment
- Fundamentals of environmental ethics and ecology
- Ethics of neuroscience
- Safety: Artificial intelligence and robotics
- Ethics and genome editing
Students will receive all details on the implementation and the current program in Moodle.
Modul PS4610 A/ PS4620SJ14/ PS4620-KP04