Ethics&Health

Education beyond Normalising Appreciation

Social change puts rising pressure on ethical challenges in the fields of health and disease. Normative projections of the body, ethnicity and gender as well trigger discriminating differentiation. With reference to the increasingly technical processes in the health sector, a scientific approach to deal with “normalised” human being is suggested. Cultural differences are being abstracted and the needs of impaired people and staff in health care are neglected by tendency. By that, aspects of bioethics are subject to discussion and have to be scrutinized and broadened. For these reasons, ethical education is challenged to refer stronger to diversity, competence to act and practical relevance.

The project responds to these challenges by cooperating with students and teachers of a general high school, a technical high school and a health & nursing school on the above subjects and by approaching bioethical subjects with reference to the concept of “concrete ethics”. Based on previous experience in classes, ethical questions along intersectional categories such as age, gender, ethnicity and norms of health are to be developed. Students will be offered University-classes, where they can deal with scientific approaches and replenish the subjects interdisciplinary. Moreover however, they shall deal with the subjects in school, partly comprehensly cross-classes. Research and design of the process is based on principles of action-research, and it is the aim to develop new methods, materials and entries for an interdisciplinary ethical education through different settings and the integration of various methods. A manual and digital teaching materials are to be developed together with teachers and students. These materials shall be distributed during presentations and trainings which are to be arranged at educational and technical colleges.

This project has been completed.