International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)

Project “Discourse Biogerontology”

Duration: February 2012 to January 2013
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Advancements in biological aging research (biogerontology) have shown that age-related diseases may be combatted more effectively in the future by directly intervening into the aging process. This prospect is associated with hopes for solving problems of demographic change as well as complex ethical, legal and social issues that have hardly been a topic of discussion to date.

Therefore, as part of the ELSA* project, an interdisciplinary discourse module entitled “Ethics of Biogerontology” that focuses on competence and argumentation skills is developed based on eight discourse projects in research, medicine and education. The classes are being tested in various partner institutions and evaluated based on an ethical competence model. The discourse modul will be published as manual for instructors.

* ELSA stands for Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects

Publications:

  • Ehni, Hans-Jörg, Julia Dietrich, Jon Leefmann, Mone Spindler. 2012. Das Altern abschaffen? Ethische Fragen der Biogerontologie. ProAlter. Vol. 44 No. 5, p. 60-63.
  • Spindler, Mone; Hans-Jörg Ehni; Julia Dietrich. 2012. Medizinische Verlangsamung des Alterns. Ethische Aspekte der Biogerontologie und ihre Bedeutung für die Medizin. Ärzteblatt Baden-Württemberg. Vol. 67, No. 9, p. 386-389.