German Ethics Council


German Ethics Council is an independent council of experts in Germany addressing the questions of ethics, society, science, medicine and law and the probable consequences for the individual and society that result in connection with research and development, in particular in the field of the life sciences and their application to humanity.
The Ethics Council Act, that entered into force on 1 August 2007, forms the basis for its activities.
Half of the 26 members are proposed by the Federal Government, while the other half of the 26 members is proposed by the Bundestag. The members of the German Ethics Council are then designated by the President of the Bundestag for four years. Through this procedure, different ethical approaches and a pluralistic spectrum of opinion should be represented. Independence is to be ensured, amongst others, by prohibiting the members to belong to the Federal Parliament or the Federal Government or to a Federal States’ Parliament or Government respectively.

Tasks

The German Ethics Council fulfils a dual function as a forum for dialogue and an advisory body. In its function as an ethical dialogue forum, the German Ethics Council is intended, in accordance with its legal basis, to bring together specialist scientific discourses and to promote the debate in society, particularly through public events. In its function as a bioethical advisory body, the German Ethics Council has the task of drawing up statements and recommendations for political or legislative action. The Council ensures cooperation with other ethics bodies at national and international level.
The German Ethics Council acts either on its own initiative or mandated by the federal government and the German Bundestag. The council reports once a year to the German Bundestag and the federal government on its activities and the state of the debate in society.
In order to inform the public and encourage discussion in society, the council organises public events and provides information about its activities on , in its newsletter and annual report. Besides a series of public evening events called "Bioethics Forum" and its annual meeting – both taking place in Berlin – the council also organises public events outside of Berlin.

Functioning

Generally, the council meets once a month; meetings are open to the public. In addition to these plenary sessions, the work on content is mainly carried out in working groups which are formed by decision of the plenary session on specific topics and meet at irregular intervals. The work of the council is supported by an administrative office, which is located in Berlin at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
In 2018, the budget of the German Bundestag provided 1.895 million Euros for the council's work.

Annual and Autumn Conferences

Once a year, a public annual conference of the German Ethics Council takes place in Berlin; together with external experts, the German Ethics Council advises and discusses in a full-day event on its current topics. An additional Autumn Conference addresses participants at varying locations throughout Germany. Conference topics of the last years were:
  • Knowledge and Power – Science in Politics and Society
  • Successful Solidarity
  • Loneliness – Existential Experience and Societal Challenge
  • Lost in "Metaverse’’? On the Intertwining of Real and Digital Worlds
  • One Health: Health for All and Everything?
  • Meet the German Ethics Council! Our Life in the Pandemic
  • Steep Prices – Speedy Recovery? Towards Fair Pricing of Expensive Medicines
  • The Quantified Self: Ethics and Aesthetics of Altered Corporeality
  • To Your Health! Dimensions of Nutritional Responsibility
  • Thinking – Believing – Knowing: Climate Change and the Ethics of Science
  • Care – Robot – Ethics. Ethical Challenges in the Technologisation of Care
  • and more.

    Bioethics Forums

In addition, the Council organizes a series of public evening events in Berlin called Bioethics Forums. These events, usually introduced by guest lecturers, aim at publicly discussing concrete biopolitical issues. Topics of the last years were: Reproductive Medicine and Debate Culture, Patient-Oriented Data Use, Good to Know? On the Responsible Use of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing , Triage – Prioritising Intensive Care Resources under Pandemic Conditions, Who First? Allocation of Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, Transgender Identity in Children and Adolescents, Advantages and disadvantages of opt-out organ donation, Rare diseases, Egg donation abroad and the consequences of this practice in Germany, Antibiotic resistance, Disease mongering, People with disabilities – a challenge for hospitals.

Further Events

Further formats include: conferences that take place annually in autumn and are organised at different locations, for example in Erfurt in 2023 on the topic of "Lost in "Metaverse’’? On the Intertwining of Real and Digital Worlds"; hearings with experts, usually in the course of preparing Opinions; online events, for example in December 2023 on the topic of "AI in the Classroom – Ethical Questions on ChatGPT and Similar Applications".

Members

The German Ethics Council consists of 26 members who shall exercise their office in person and independently. They may not belong either to the Federal Parliament or the Federal Government or to a Federal States’ Parliament or Government respectively. They represent scientific, medical, theological, ethical, social, economic and legal concerns in a particular way and ensure a variety of ethical approaches and a pluralist spectrum of opinions. The members are appointed for a period of four years. A one-time reappointment is possible. If a member resigns prematurely, a new member is appointed for four years.

Members since October 2024

The appointment of the members of the Ethics Council, which usually takes place in April, was delayed in 2024 and did not take place until October 2024. Although the Bundestag had proposed 11 members at the beginning of June, the 10 proposals of the federal government were still pending before the President of the Bundestag, Bärbel Bas, could appoint all members. Only the four members appointed during the current period, 2020 to 2024, Elisabeth Gräb-Schmidt, Armin Grunwald, Mark Schweda and Judith Simon, remained in office until then. After of 29 September 2024, the four remaining members issued a press release calling on the Federal Government to act.
After the Federal Government named its candidates in mid-October 2024, six months late, all members were appointed by the President of the Bundestag, Bärbel Bas, with effect from 10 October for the new term of office. Since the AfD-proposed gynaecologist Ronald Weikl, who was sentenced to a suspended prison term for issuing unlawful certificates for exemption from the mask requirement, was rejected by the Bundestag, the Ethics Council has only 25 members instead of 26.
On 15 November 2024, the council members elected law professor Helmut Frister as its chair. The neuroscientist Susanne Schreiber, the philosopher and digital ethicist Judith Simon, and the medical doctor and ethicist Eva Winkler were appointed as deputy chairs.
  • Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jutta Allmendinger
  • Regional Bishop Dr. phil. Petra Bahr
  • Prof. Dr. phil. Cornelia Betsch
  • Prof. Dr. iur. Hans-Georg Dederer
  • Dr. rer. nat. Uta Eser
  • Prof. Dr. Aldo Faisal
  • Military Bishop Dr. theol. Bernhard Felmberg
  • Prof. Dr. iur. Helmut Frister
  • Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Nils Goldschmidt
  • Prof. Dr. theol. Elisabeth Gräb-Schmidt
  • Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Armin Grunwald
  • Prof. Dr. med. Winfried Hardinghaus
  • Dr. phil. Ute Kalender
  • Hedy Kerek-Bodden
  • Prof. Dr. phil. Armin Nassehi
  • Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Annette Riedel
  • Prof. Dr. iur. Dr. phil. Frauke Rostalski
  • Prof. Dr. rer. soc. Dr. theol. Jochen Sautermeister
  • Prof. Dr. theol. Kerstin Schlögl-Flierl
  • Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Susanne Schreiber
  • Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Josef Schuster
  • Prof. Dr. phil. Mark Schweda
  • Prof. Dr. phil. Judith Simon
  • Prof. Dr. phil. Muna Tatari
  • Prof. Dr. iur. Gregor Thüsing
  • Prof. Dr. Achim Wambach
  • Prof. Dr. med. Dr. phil. Eva Winkler

    Members 2020–2024

The President of the German Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble, appointed 21 members to the German Ethics Council as of 30 April 2020. Several members had reached the end of their terms with the body on 10 April 2020, among them the previous chairman Peter Dabrock. Including three members who were appointed outside the regular cycle between 2016 and 2018, the German Ethics Council had 24 members in this period. On 28 May 2020, the council members elected medical ethicist Alena Buyx as its chair, and as its vice-chairs the lawyer Volker Lipp, the philosopher Julian Nida-Rümelin and the theoretical neuroscientist Susanne Schreiber.