EACME Newsletter 31

1 September 2012
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EDITORIAL

BIOETHICS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE A European Perspective P. Schotsmans

BIOETHICS IN ACADEMIC ROOMS: Hearing other voices, living in other rooms R. de Vries

THE VOICE OF BIOETHICS IN THE ARTS H. Zwart

A CLINICAL ROOM WITH A VIEW S. Hurst

BEHAVIOURAL EXPRESSION OF INCOMPETENT PATIENTS: Should they guide health care decisions? R. Jox

LA PRESCRIPTION DE PLACEBO, QUESTION ÉTHIQUE DÉLICATE J. Martin

ACADEMIC RETREAT IN OXFORD E. Landeweer

BOOK REVIEW R. Houtepen

A PROPOS DE l’OUVRAGE “ELÉMENTS POUR UNE ÉTHIQUE DE LA VULNÉRABILITÉ” J. Martin

INTRODUCTION CAROLINE BRALL

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Editorial

Dear friends and colleagues, we truly hope to see you all at our upcoming EACME conference in Bristol (UK). The aim of the conference is to discuss the history of our discipline and review how ethics developed into an institutionalized endeavour: “Other voices, other rooms, then and now.” Of course, reviewing the past will also require that we outline some potential future developments.

However, this is not the only reason that makes the Bristol conference special. We also wish to celebrate EACME’s 25th anniversary. Yes, 25 years is quite an impressive age. Thus our European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics has actively accompanied the development of European Bioethics throughout the last decades. We hope that our association has also managed to shape these developments in a good way.

Today, it is somewhat difficult to keep track of all the sub-disciplines of Ethics that have emerged throughout the years. It is especially difficult for those who are not so familiar with our field of work and research. Research Ethics, Clinical Ethics, Medical Ethics, Research in Ethics, Empirical Ethics – just to name some of the core specialities. Well, maybe we should pay more attention here. The lay public can easily get lost here. Most of the doctors we are dealing with in hospitals even mix up the difference between research ethics and clinical ethics, so we have a duty to better explain our own varieties to the outside world.

Still, it is all Ethics, isn’t it? We are not so sure anymore. As the discipline develops, hardly anyone discusses the very core of Ethics anymore. Now, a question to you all: in our daily working endeavour, do we really all have the same understanding of what the discipline is about? Let us give it a try here, let us confess what Ethics is about. We (Rouven and Renzo)

think: the discipline of Ethics is (mainly) about reflecting upon human actions and the values attached to them, thus reflecting the nature of morality/

moralities. At the same time, Ethics tries to analyse the good way of action and tries to distinguish the good from the bad, right from wrong. What do you think? If you agree with this position, then any dealing that you have with Ethics will inevitably include a reflection about (implicit and/or explicit) normativity. We hope that the Bristol conference will provide room and voices to focus on some of these interesting normative core issues again.

Talking about normativity: you should really read this Newsletter! Paul Schotsmans, Samia Hurst and Raymond de Vries have already sketched out some initial ideas about their upcoming plenary talks in Bristol. Our editorial member Elleke Landeweer reports on her inspiring research stay in Oxford. Jean Martin focuses on the ethics of the use of placebo and Ralf Jox describes some of his work in relation to “incompetent patients.” Last but not least, we have a new editorial member: A warm welcome to Caroline Brall.

Yours,