Working Group Medical Ethics

The Europäische Akademie’s Sponsors’ Club hosted another event for the medical ethics working group on 30th October 2007

The topic was “Should public health care cover the costs of fertility treatments? Ethical and legal considerations”. In contrast to other countries, the public health system in Germany covers the cost of reproductive medical treatments only to a very limited extent. This brings up the question of whether, from a moral point of view, this situation is unfair and whether there is a need for political action.

In his lecture, Dr. phil. Dipl.-Biol. Oliver Rauprich, head of the “Fairness in modern medicine”-BMBF junior scientists’ group at the Institute of Medical Ethics and the History of Medicine at the Universität Bochum, made an interesting argument: Although an unfulfilled desire to have children (or any reasons thereof) cannot usually be considered a disease or disability, moral considerations regarding our concept of a felicitous life may favour asking society to cover more of the costs of fertility treatments than is currently the case.

Contact: Dr. med. Felix Thiele, M.Sc.