Medical ethics and bioethics
The research group studies the ethical debate concerning both the research and application of modern biotechnology in a broad sense. Biotechnology is discussed in view of relevant ethical theories, worldviews, and central historical examples and lines of development.
Relevant topics are debates concerning screening, prenatal diagnosis, assisted reproduction, newborn medicine, medical genetics, and biobanking.
Current projects include:
- The ethics of genetic sequencing
- The ethical foundations of parental decisions on treatment of extremely premature newborns
- In genes we trust? Biobanks, commercialisation and everyday life:
This project studies how genetic risk information is transformed, communicated and perceived in an era of commercialization. We follow the risk information on the way from biobank researchers to consumers and everyday life. A central research question is how commercialization of genetic research affects the trust and the beliefs of participants in biobank research.