Program

Profile of the Research Training Group
Research programme
Study programme

Since the beginning of the second phase of funding in 2007, the Research Training Group "Bioethics" had been concerned with the overarching research question of "human self-design by using biotechniques." Based on the previous results of the Research Training Group "Bioethics", the graduate programme was confronted with this new comprehensive research question. In comparison with the first phase in which three interconnected areas (theoretical foundations of bioethics, ethical and philosophical aspects of neuroscience, ethical and philosophical aspects of the use of genetic information) had been the focus of research, there was now a concentration on a single comprehensive research topic. However, neurosciences and genetics along with their technological developments were retained in the process as reference sciences, for they form a junction from which new challenges often arise. Here, the central topic of research was human self-design in all its ethical, anthropological, social and epistemological aspects. Thus, topics and issues were addressed that are of international interest.

IZEW’s time-tested methodological programme of ethics in the sciences, or in the biosciences, necessarily involves the cooperation of scholars from various academic disciplines. The participating scholars incorporated their own research interests in the formulation of the main research focuses.

By choosing the topic of human self-design through new biotechnologies, the research perspective had improved compared to the previous Research Training Group. Particularly innovative was the idea to reflect upon and interpret biotechnologies as a means of human self-design against the background of classical philosophical anthropology, its concept of the human being and its categories. The anthropological fact that human beings are by nature beings of culture and characterised by an unchangeable “natural artificiality” (Plessner) to which science and technology belong is gaining a new dimension in the era of biotechnology. Given this anthropological fact, determining the limits of biotechnological self-design has become quite an ethical challenge. Bioethics has assumed an increasingly important function as a bridge discipline between the natural sciences, the humanities and social sciences.

The study programme served as a structured postgraduate programme in interdisciplinary bioethics. Issues concerning human self-design were presented from the perspectives of various academic fields; however, depending on the disciplinary origins of the participants, the programme could also be tailored to particular research interests.

Doctoral supervision was available in the form of interdisciplinary tandems of professors from the humanities and natural sciences. The students’ academic independence began with the conception and selection of a specific doctoral or postdoctoral project. In addition to a colloquium and work groups, the study programme also included a complete structure of support within the research group itself. This promoted the independence of the students who also learned to organise the study programme and plan and hold conferences and colloquiums.

International cooperation in the postgraduate programme had been intensified as a result of the transition to the new model. Renowned scholars and institutions had been gained from Estonia, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland. That offered the possibility for joint doctoral seminars, workshops, a summer school as well as a doctoral student exchange.

International partners

The opportunity to apply for a position in English and to write contributions to colloquiums and a dissertation in English made it possible to invite international doctoral students for the programme and to stimulate an international scientific exchange.

General Problem

Bioethical competence is becoming a required academic qualification. The rapid developments in biological and medical research as well as in its present and potential future applications are constantly presenting us with new ethical and legal challenges. Bioethics, be it in its function as ethical reflection on present research and technology or its anticipated role as a sensor of potential future chances and risks of the life sciences, is expressed in expertise, opinions, recommendations and draft laws on a national and international level. In this respect, an institutional bioethics is taking shape in academics and politics. However, there is a considerable gap between the growing demand for bioethical competence and the available educational opportunities. An interdisciplinary competence, as is required for sound bioethical judgments in the field, is difficult to acquire within the established forms of a traditional doctoral programme. Rather, it requires the structure of an interdepartmental cooperation in which representatives from the natural sciences and humanities work together on common issues in an integrative process of reflection. The Research Training Group "Bioethics" therefore made a significant contribution with its research and study programme to professionalising an interdisciplinary, applied bioethics, thereby fulfilling a structuralising function.

With the Research Training Group, this process was carried out on the basis of a central research idea that acted as a guide for determining new topics as well as working on already identified problems in more detail. The developments that are currently taking place on a theoretical, practical and technical level in the life sciences are constantly giving rise to ethical and philosophical reflections. However, these are not exhausted by simply providing the basis for regulatory proposals but must be formulated on a basic philosophical and anthropological level. Life sciences, practice and reflection therefore form a close connection, a connection that was the focus of the Research Training Group.

Central research topic

Human self-design was the central research topic that was examined from an ethical, anthropological, societal and epistemological perspective.

The term biotechniques describes the totality of bioscientific (biological and medical) techniques that render interventions into plant, animal and human organisms possible, although the Research Training Group was only concerned with the application in humans. Human self-design in this context refers to human design beyond traditional education and upbringing that begins in our organic nature and makes use of biotechniques. Biotechniques and the options they allow present us with the need for reconsideration and orientation with regard to our human self-conception as natural and cultural beings. As a result of the wide range of possibilities left open by biotechnical self-design, we are forced to take a stance and come to an understanding about our human self-conception, for both accepting and integrating these techniques into our individual and social lives as well as the refusal thereof must be discussed according to established criteria. The innovative characteristics of this research project will be described in more detail in the following.

The uniqueness of the new biotechniques lies in the scope and depth of their pushing and transcending previous, mostly natural boundaries, although the expressions pushing and transcending boundaries are used here in a purely descriptive manner. The assessment and evaluation of such applications were in the responsibility of the individual projects within the Research Training Group. Examples of these are the production of transgenic animals and plants, often using unrelated genes, microchip techniques in genome analysis, xenotransplantation as transplantation of cells, tissues and organs between species, the cloning of animals that only reproduce under natural conditions, the implantation of neural prostheses (such as brain pacemakers) in the human brain to compensate for or replace damaged or lost functions, the deep brain stimulation for psychiatric disorders, targeted memory erasure, etc. There are particular challenges posed by biotechnologies, the goal of which is not to treat disease but to simply enhance human abilities. Dealing with the wide variety of new options is often not regulated by a traditional legal and ethical system of norms. For this reason, science, medicine, ethics, law, politics and society are forced to face these new challenges. Even the abovementioned biotechnologies that have only been tested on animals are relevant for humans as well because their application on humans has been considered throughout their development, as demonstrated by the discussion on human cloning.

Main research focuses and their integrative connection

Bioethics is one of the main areas of interdisciplinary, applied ethics and aims for a normative understanding of the scope and limits of human action in dealing with the living world, including human nature. Consistent with the previous Research Training Group, this Research Training Group worked on topics of applied ethics by integrating ethical reflection and expertise from individual academic disciplines. The methodological programme “Ethics in the sciences and humanities” at the IZEW and the cooperating ethics departments in the biomedical sciences and medicine has been successful for many years. The fundamental idea of ethics in the sciences and humanities is to develop possible solutions to ethical issues that arise from scholarship and that have already been revealed, analysed, discussed and assessed by scholars themselves in cooperation with colleagues from ethics and other disciplines.

Therefore, the Research Training Group was built upon an already-established practice of ethical and scientific research and education. Ethical issues that arise from the life sciences were worked on through the personal and institutional consolidation of interdisciplinary skills in an integrative process of reflection.

Since the questions regarding neurosciences and genetics in addition to the direct application-oriented aspects touch upon anthropological and epistemological issues, this also had an impact on the theoretical foundations of bioethics itself. The results of human self-reflection are reflected in the theoretical foundations of bioethics. Although bioethics in its function as an applied ethics has developed questions that are closely related to specific challenges posed by science and technology, bioethics itself should not be misunderstood as a "recipe for science". Rather, bioethics is a separate topic that retains the reference to application but is not limited to it.

For the individual projects, see here and here.
For workshops and other events see here.

The study programme consisted of structured post-graduate training in interdisciplinary bioethics that had proven itself in the first phase of the Research Training Group. In the second and third phase, the international focus was strengthened. The programme for each "generation" of doctoral students consisted of 4 semesters.

The goal of the study programme was to familiarise students with the current topics and systematic approaches of bioethics as they directly related to the research programme described above. In the programme, students acquired qualifications for engaging in academic dialogues and interdisciplinary bioethical competencies for later research tasks, teaching and public affairs. Events within the programme were combined with others from the various disciplines and degree programmes in Tübingen (such as the Max Planck School of Neurosciences, among others). The study programme realised a complete post-graduate training in interdisciplinary bioethics. In doing so, it still left room for specific research priorities depending on individual requirements and research subjects in order to ensure the speedy and efficient completion of a doctoral degree. With the summer schools, meetings and workshops as part of the visiting scholars programme, a close link between education and research was guaranteed.

Overview of study programme and specific events