Medical ethics specialists are urgently needed
"The Science of life and Death": to study medical ethics in Germany
Dmitry Vachedin, Deutsche WelleProgress in medicine and science poses new questions to humanity.
Germany urgently needs specialists in medical ethics. Career prospects here can be described in one word: in great demand.
"Ethics for doctors? Why not come up with an anatomy course for philosophers: anyone who constantly talks about man and humanity should first study it properly," the information about the appearance of the Department of medical ethics at the University of Mainz is sarcastically commented on the Internet. However, the difference here is obvious.
In order to assess the demand for medical ethics specialists, it is enough to open any newspaper – the problems of the death penalty, euthanasia, genetic engineering and cloning are discussed in the press almost daily. The main scientific news of this spring is the creation by scientist Craig Venter of "synthetic life", a cell controlled by an artificially created genome. How to evaluate this event from an ethical point of view?
Sooner or later humanity must learn to answer the questions that science is increasingly asking. The appearance of ethics experts is an attempt to maintain control over the situation in science.
After studying – two waysThe Master's program "Medical Ethics" at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz has been in existence for a little more than a year, but future graduates are already waiting in German clinics and research centers.
It can be assumed that specialists will be in great demand. "Our graduates will most often choose from two paths," says Anika Mitzkat, an employee of the Institute, "they are expected in the ethics committees of German hospitals and in the commissions that evaluate scientific research."
Technological progress in medicine has led to the emergence of completely new problems. The more "advanced" the technology, the clearer it is that humanity cannot give old answers to new questions. "The need to solve ethical issues begins right at the patient's bedside," says Anika Mitzkat, "it was the urgent problems of patients that led to the creation of special ethics committees."
Today, in order to pass certification, hospitals and clinics must have an "ethical control system". Medical ethics specialists are needed in every hospital in Germany! And the training centers where you can get such an education can still be counted on your fingers.
A chance for foreignersAnother important aspect is that people of very different cultures live in Germany.
An ethicist at a medical institution is called upon to smooth out intercultural and interreligious contradictions. There are wide job opportunities for foreign students who are already familiar with the problems.
In addition to Mainz, a similar master's program called "Medicine-Ethics-Law" is available at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, and it is even cheaper to study there. If in Mainz a full course of study (2-3 years) will cost a student about 10,000 euros, then in Halle it will be possible to meet 2,000 euros. But the University of Mainz provides an opportunity to study medical ethics in absentia.
Students who already have a basic university education (usually a bachelor's degree) can enroll in the Department of Medical Ethics in Mainz. Most often they are doctors. There are many lawyers among them, because the scope of medical ethics is not limited to hospitals. In Germany, any scientific project where people are the object of research must be approved by the ethics commission. The way to these commissions lies, among other things, through the magistracy in Mainz.
There is no doubt that ethics specialists will have plenty of work in the coming decades. Cloning, genetic engineering, and now "synthetic life" – it seems that science has reached a completely new stage. What is behind it – no one has clarity.
The Ethics Committee is not "special Forces"The one who considers ethical committees in hospitals to be such "special purpose" groups that appear at the right moment and solve all issues with a clear verdict will be mistaken – for example, "turn off the life support system".
"Ethics specialists don't make decisions," says Anika Mitzkat, "it's about consultations, about considering the problem from the point of view of ethics." Take, for example, the patient's right to refuse treatment. The law says that you cannot treat a person against his will. But what to do in situations where it is unclear whether the patient is able to make an independent decision for health reasons? This is where a member of the ethics committee is called. "It is called, and does not interfere or invade," says an employee of the University in Mainz. What is needed is not the dictatorship of ethics committees, but delicate participation in solving complex issues.
Technological progress and the introduction of new technologies in medicine is a worldwide process. This means that ethicists with applied knowledge of medicine will be needed all over the world.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru19.07.2010