With the shift from the paradigm of curing to prevention in medicine individual health risks are seen as a major new issue. Especially with the availability of individualized risk information through genetic testing and increased knowledge about the influence of individual behavior on health (health seeking behavior, preventive medicine, checkups, nutrition, sport etc.) there is a growing awareness for the risk of possible future illnesses in medicine. This paper takes the different notions of risk, that come together in a situation of risk information and shared decision making between doctor and patient, as a starting point for an in depth analysis of the different epistemic and semantic backgrounds that characterize the medical situation of risk information. So far theoretical or philosophical analyses on the concept of risk mainly focus on societal risks like climate change or financial crisis starting from sociological concepts like risk society. In this paper it will be assessed how far these approaches are helpful for a better understanding of risk in medicine; it will be taken into account the epistemic difference between knowledge of risk based on probabilities or uncertainty and causal knowledge.

Euthanasia is a “mercy killing”. More formally, it is killing of those who are incurably ill, in great pain or distress. Euthanasia can take three forms: voluntary, involuntary and non-voluntary. All three kinds of euthanasia can be either active or passive. Buddhism rejects euthanasia in its voluntary and non-voluntary forms. Thus, Buddhism – that is supposed to be opposed to euthanasia – is thereby not committed to life being an absolute value to be preserved at all cost. In the case of active euthanasia, a Buddhist would say that to kill another person is simply not a skillful deed. Regarding passive euthanasia, a Buddhist would allow a patient to die by failing to introduce life preserving procedures, by stopping them once begun or by taking steps to alleviate pain which might hasten the dying process. Contrary to the case of active euthanasia, there is no Buddhist consensus on passive euthanasia, either voluntary or involuntary. Various cases of killing and even inciting to suicide are condemned in vinayapitaka as unsuitable activities for monks.

This article rejects the traditional division of “active/passive euthanasia”. Such concept usage carries the potential for adding significant confusion and unnecessary complexity to the already extraordinarily complex issues surrounding euthanasia, assisted suicide and various related end-of-life acts such as withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments. Whatever their normative view of euthanasia, discussants are well advised to use one particular and uniform understanding of euthanasia; namely, what it is taken to mean in the Netherlands. In this conception, there is no such thing as “passive euthanasia”.

Ageing has become a central topic of medical ethical debates, e.g. regarding autonomy and care in geriatric practice, the just distribution of healthcare or the implications of anti-ageing medicine. In all these debates, however, particular conceptions of ageing are tacitly presupposed. The aim of my research is to develop an explicit understanding of the relevance of ageing for ethical reasoning, providing a conceptual framework for discussing concrete medical ethical problems in a more comprehensive and reflected manner. I proceed from the life course approach, assuming that our life is shaped by a time regime defined and implemented by social institutions and structures, reflected in cultural images, and internalized as an “inner clock” directing individual decisions. From the ethical viewpoint, two concepts appear particularly significant: In a deontological perspective, the idea of “age norms”, social standards of age-appropriate behavior, becomes relevant. In a teleological perspective focusing on individual flourishing and good life, the concept of life plans, comprising age-related self-images and expectations, is important. I will briefly sketch the current medical ethical debates around ageing, then delineate the life course perspective and its implications for ethical reasoning, and finally exemplify its theoretical potential regarding medical ethical controversies about long time care, resource allocation and life extension.

The nature of health is one of the central topics in the philosophy of medicine. The concept of health is complex because it comprises multiple features and there is no consensus on which feature is most basic or even whether some particular feature has any importance at all. This paper focuses on how several basic elements play a role in the formation of the concept of health. My central claim is that the theory of emergence offers a way to construct a theory of health that is sympathetic to both analytic and holistic perspectives. In one way, this emergent theory of health looks very much like a holistic theory in that it considers not only biological factors as fundamental to understanding health, but also psychological, and social factors. In another way, this theory looks very much like an analytic theory because it sees health as a phenomenon that emerges from more basic elements: biology, psychology, and sociology. This may seem ambiguous, but this kind of ambiguity might just be the biggest virtue of the theory.

In medicine, the gap between discovery and innovation is shortening. This is highlighted in the field of pathogen diagnosis and discovery where molecular techniques are allowing detection and identification of microbes that previously was not possible. It is common practice in medicine to store patient specimens for purposes of future study. Specifically, if patient specimens exist for which a negative diagnosis was made, applying new technology may yield a positive diagnosis. Retrospective analysis on patient specimens is scientifically appealing. It does however raise bioethical questions, especially in the context when a patient is alive. Specific questions include:1.Did patients agree to future tests, not known at the time of obtaining the sample?2. Should individual patients be asked if they want to know their new test results?3. Or do we even need their consent to do any of this, from testing to communicating results on previously diagnosed ‘negatives’- actually false negatives now?We faced this with frozen brain fluid specimens. Forty neurologists and neurosurgeons were surveyed asking whether novel results on archived specimens should be reported, along with soliciting input for additional comments. In addition, a review of the literature was performed.

“Cultivating yang in spring and summer, while protecting Yin in autumn and winter” is one of the most important principles of health preservation, which was put forward in the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. However, ancient scholar-physicians held different views on the principle at their own levels of understanding, as well as with its application, mainly represented by the restriction doctrine, the growth and storage doctrine, and the root doctrine. The three doctrines were related with the opposition of yin and yang, waxing and waning of yin and yang, and mutual rooting of yin and yang, respectively. In light of the evolution of the yin-yang theory during Qin and Han dynasties and its influence on the theory of Chinese Medicine, this principle was developed on the basis of conforming to the cycle of four seasons and understanding of yin-yang circulation theory. The ideas in the doctrine of growth and storage were consistent with the principle, whereas the two other doctrines were developed by the influence of the theories on opposition and balance of yin and yang.

Στις μέρες μας, που τα ηθικά ιατρικά διλήμματα, εξαιτίας της αλματώδους εξέλιξης της επιστήμης και της τεχνολογίας, έχουν πολλαπλασιασθεί και οξυνθεί, η ιατρική ως επιστήμη της ζωής και ως ανθρωπιστικό λειτούργημα καλείται να θωρακιστεί με μια ανθρωπιστική ηθική, προκειμένου τα ερωτήματα περί της ζωής και θανάτου, των σχέσεων ιατρού και ασθενούς καθώς και σεβασμού της αυτονομίας του ασθενούς να εξεταστούν σε βάθος , δηλαδή ηθικά και φιλοσοφικά. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό το ιπποκρατικό ιατρικό και θεραπευτικό πρότυπο αποτελεί το φάρο της ιατρικής ηθικής, αφού προβάλλει την ανθρωπιστική παιδεία ως εσωτερική καλλιέργεια ώστε ο άνθρωπος, και ο ιατρός ιδιαίτερα, να είναι ικανός και να έχει κατανόηση στις επιδιώξεις του ανθρώπου και στην αντιμετώπιση της δυστυχίας του, να έχει εκτίμηση του καλού, του ωραίου και του δίκαιου, και εν γένει να έχει συγκροτήσει με μαλότητα τον εσωτερικό του κόσμο και να επιθυμεί την κατά το δυνατόν τελειοποίηση της ζωής του και της κοινωνίας.