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May 2013 EACME Newsletter
Contents
EDITORIAL R. Porz
CROSSING BOUNDARIES CONNECTING CULTURES Learning from a participative social media
approach to improve public mental health M. Knibbe
RESEARCH BIOBANKING: BIOETHICAL ANALYSIS – A SUMMARY M. Šuleková
INTERNATIONAL VISITING FELLOW Institut für Medizinische Ethik und Geschichte
der Medizin – Bochum F. D’Abramo
INTERNATIONAL VISITING FELLOW Institut für Medizinische Ethik und Geschichte der Medizin – Bochum J. Barutta
E-SANTE, LITTERATIE EN SANTE, WEB 2.0 6 floraison d’initiatives avec des enjeux éthiques J. Martin
BOOK REVIEWS
NEW ASSOCIATE MEMBER
EACME PRIZES
DEADLINE NEXT NEWSLETTER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
EDITORIAL BOARD
Editorial
Why (again) did I become an ethicist?
Why am I posing this question? No, not because I am in a midlife crisis and no, I still think my job is fun. But sometimes, and especially lately, I keep asking myself: why again did I become an ethicist? Was it a purely rational decision or did the field of bioethics attract me on an intuitive level? I believe it was a rational choice – I wanted to work at the intersection of medicine, humanities and natural science. But was it really like that? It sounds complicated but I think this was indeed the reason. Was it?
Why do I keep wondering? The reason is the following: I work as a clinical ethicist in a big hospital and I give lessons to a lot of students: medical students, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists – I get in touch with almost all kinds of health care professionals in the course of their education and training. And these young people are increasingly skeptical towards my work: “Mr. Porz, why are you doing this, at all?”, “Do you ease the conscience of the university hospital?”, “Are you a ‘fig leaf’?”, “Do physicians take you seriously?”. Basically, I appreciate my students’ openness, skepticism and honesty. At the same time, though, I am not constantly in the mood for justifying the scope and limits of ethics. However, students’ questions help me to get an idea of what they expect from ethics in healthcare. And (unfortunately) they often expect ethics to make a decision when no one else can, much like an arbitrator. But this is not my understanding of ethics. I believe that ethics should reflect upon things, uncover implicit normativities and think ahead.
My phone is ringing, a journalist is calling. He asks for a quick statement on whether it is ethically justified to send asylum seekers back to their home country. It is urgent, he says, since he wants to publish his online article that evening. With caution and modesty I explain why I cannot answer such an imprecise question as quickly. “But I thought you’re an ethicist!”, the journalist counters a little upset and with a hint of reproach. He puts the phone down on me. I start wondering again, why did I become an ethicist again? It is knocking on my door and my younger work colleague enters, Nina Scherrer, a philosopher who is about to begin with her doctoral thesis. Before she can say something, I ask: “Tell me, Nina, why do you want to become an ethicist?” Without much astonishment and firmly convinced she replies: “Ethics is about human action and values – what could be more thrilling?” A short silence ensues. I am smiling. Right, it’s as simple as that. How could I forget? Students, journalists, physicians – all of them are entangled in action. I feel reassured.
“So, Rouven, what is in the EACME newsletter?”, Nina asks. Of course, the newsletter. I start talking about the text of Mare Knibbe and Mária Sulekovà who writes about biobanking, and then there are two texts by Joaquín Barutta and Flavio D’Abramo, one book review, event suggestions … small but mighty, as usual. I hand Nina a copy, hot off the press: Happy reading!
Rouven Porz
Inselspital, University Hospital Bern
General Secretary of EACME
Download the full May 2013 EACME Newsletter
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