The Research Group Medicine, Time and the Good Life (FOR 5022) can continue its work for further four years with an ongoing funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG): The interdisciplinary team of the University Medical Centre Göttingen and the Universities of Oldenburg, Goettingen and Humboldt-University of Berlin can thus continue its previous work and expand it with new research approaches with funding of almost 3.4 million euros.

A new research focus of FOR 5022 is generativity, referring to the awareness that one's own life is part of a larger temporal context in which previous generations have come before and further will follow. The significance of such generational aspects for medicine will be the core topic in the upcoming funding period. The team aims to record and analyse a broad spectrum of perspectives and values relating to the topic of medicine and lifespan. This includes analysing media representations in order to examine their influence on what people consider to be a good life in time. Other research topics include the role of voluntary work to health in old age, as well as the further development of methods to better analyse temporal aspects of quality of life in medicine. At the section of Ethics in Medicine research will explore what finiteness and generativity mean for how older individuals engage with medical options.

Since 2021 the FOR 5022 has been researching the interdependencies between medicine and lifespan from various scientific perspectives. For the second funding period, Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda is taking over the role of spokesperson from Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesemann from Goettingen.

Website of the research group 5022: https://for5022.de/en/start/

The Working Group Intergenerational Health Care Ethics (AiG), in which Prof. Schweda and Niklas Ellerich-Groppe are involved in the Division of Ethics in Medicine, is organizing an international conference on “Intergenerational Issues in Health Care Ethics: Responsibility, Solidarity, and Sustainability” from 16 to 18 October 2024 as part of its activities.

Current challenges in health care ethics show that intergenerational perspectives are becoming increasingly relevant, for example in the ethical analysis of problems such as the future of biomedical research, the post-antibiotic era, and public health-measures in pandemic combat. However, in these approaches, there is the need for clarification of fundamental concepts such as responsibility, solidarity, and sustainability, as well as the concept of generation itself.

Against this backdrop, this three-day interdisciplinary and international conference addresses intergenerational issues in health care ethics. It is organized in three sessions on responsibility, solidarity and sustainability. It aims to explore how normative aspects of responsibility, solidarity and sustainability between present and future generations can be ethically  investigated. In order to understand intergenerational relations adequately, the notions of "collectives" and "generations" need to be explained within their temporal and spatial frames. The conference aims to explore and discuss their normative foundations.

Registration open until July 31 2024 via

Program

Wednesday, 16. October 2024

14:00 – 15:00    Arrival and Registration

Introduction Session (Chair: Silke Schicktanz & Mark Schweda)

15:00 – 16:00    Short Presentation of the Research Network

Intergenerational Health Care Ethics and Introduction into the Conference Topic

Christoph Rehmann-Sutter

16:00 – 16:30    COFFEE BREAK

16:30 – 17:30    Time Preference in Health Care and in Health Care Economics

Dieter Birnbacher

17:30 – 18:30    Joint walk to the Speakers Dinner

18:30    SPEAKERS DINNER

Thursday, 17. October 2024

Session 1: Responsibility (Chair: Claudia Bozzaro & Niklas Ellerich-Groppe)

9:00 – 10:00       Which Collectives are Relevant for Bioethics and Why?

Silke Schicktanz

10:00 – 11:00    Understanding Responsibility for Environmentally Sustainable Research

Federica Lucivero

11:00 – 11:30    COFFEE BREAK

11:30 – 12:30    Collective Responsibility across Generations

David Schweikard

12:30 – 14:30    LUNCH & JOINT WALK

Session 2: Solidarity (Chair: Claudia Bozzaro & Christoph Rehmann-Sutter)

14:30 – 15:30    Solidarity Discourses during the COVID 19-Pandemic

Mark Schweda & Niklas Ellerich-Groppe

15:30 – 16:30    The Relevance of Solidarity in Public Health

Angus James Dawson

16:30 – 17:00    COFFEE BREAK

17:00 – 18:00    Doubling Down on Solidarity with Future People in Response to Climate Change: a Parenting Ethics Approach

Nancy Jecker & Christina Richie

18:30 – 21:30    CONFERENCE DINNER

Friday, 18. October 2024

9:00 – 11:00       Poster Session

(Chair: Niklas Ellerich-Groppe & Dominik Koesling)

Balancing Human and Ecosystem Health: Value Dilemmas in Nature Prescription

Nicola Banwell

The Moral Imperative of Drug Patents: Reconciling Innovation, Ethics, and Human Well-being

Noor Kutubul & Alam Siddiquee

Ethical Aspects and Issues of Collective Responsibility in Technology Development for Healthcare

Ana Lucía Cortés Maya

Responsibilities toward future Generations: an Action-Ethics Approach

Brenda Bogaert

Ethical Perspectives on Collective Responsibility and Intergenerational Solidarity in the Covid 19-Pandemic Related to the Italian Case

Francesca Apolloni

Intergenerational Responsibility and Solidarity beyond the COVID-19-Pandemic – An International Comparative Perspective on Central Normative Reference Points in Future Crises

Eva Katharina Boser, Nadine Hesse & Niklas Ellerich-Groppe

11:00 – 11:30    COFFEE BREAK

Session 3: Sustainability (Chair: Christoph Rehmann-Sutter & Mark Schweda)

11:30 – 12:30    Sustainability as a Normative Criterion in Health Care Ethics

Claudia Bozzaro & Dominik Koesling

12:30 – 13:30    LUNCH

13:30 – 14:30    How Far Should Healthcare Systems Go to Minimise their Environmental Impact?

Bridget Pratt

14:30 – 15:00    COFFEE BREAK

15:00 – 16:00    Sustainable rather than Green: Minding the Future in Healthcare Ethics and Planning – the Cases of Antibiotic Policy, Climate Ethics and One Health.

Christian Munthe

16:00 – 16:30    Wrap-up and Discussion on Joint Future Perspectives

16:30    END OF CONFERENCE

Funded by DFG and HWK