As we have all learned in recent years, a pandemic can produce shortages in intensive care units. In our jurisdiction, this has led to a ruling by the federal constitutional court, according to which the lawmaker has to provide better protection for persons with disabilities in the event of medical priority setting.

Statistically, people with mental disorders die prematurely due to preventable and treatable somatic illness. We analyze testimonial injustice as one mechanism which contributes to poor quality of health care for people with mental disorders.

In the public debate in Germany on the Corona-Warn-App, the concept of solidarity is a prominent, but contested normative reference point. Thus, different uses of the concept with heterogeneous assumptions, normative implications and practical consequences stand next to each other and require medical ethical investigation. Against this backdrop, this contribution aims firstly to illustrate the spectrum of understandings of the concept of solidarity in the public debate on the Corona-Warn-App. Secondly, it elaborates the preconditions and normative implications of these uses and evaluates them from an ethical perspective.

Clinical ethics committees form an integral part of ethics management and organizational ethics in clinical healthcare facilities. However, working mostly reactive and not being anchored in the corresponding organizational levels, such instruments are limited in terms of effectiveness.

An estimated 100,000-500,000 migrant care workers provide live-in care in German households, many of them caring for older people with dementia. Social research has identified a wide range of structural social problems associated with live-in care. However, a systematic ethical analysis and discussion is still missing.

The article asks whether vaccination status could become relevant if it is unavoidable to prioritize between patients in intensive care units during a pandemic. The aim is to analyze different approaches and arguments in favor of and against the inclusion of vaccination status.

Compassionate use is the use of unapproved drugs in groups of patients suffering from a disease that, in the absence of an alternative treatment option, is life-threatening or leads to severe disability. Physicians are not in charge because access to the drug is only granted by pharmaceutical companies, which comes along with many ethical issues. Launched in 2020, the program of against spinal muscular atrophy in children reached a new dimension. The intent of this drug is to stop the progression of the disease with just a single dose, but the company limited the doses in the program to only 100. The global allocation was by lottery, which was considered a novelty in compassionate use history and therefore widely criticized. This paper investigates alternative allocation principles.

Feminist approaches to medical ethics are well established in international discourses. By contrast, in the German-speaking medical ethical discourse, they still seem to be rather marginal. In this article, we analyze which feminist perspectives are prominent in German medical ethics and suggest new approaches.

Modern medicine is challenging traditional views of age(ing). What was long considered a "normal" sign of old age is now often perceived and treated as a disease. As a result, age-related health standards and treatment goals are shifting. The resulting scope between trivialization and pathologization of age(ing) requires ethical reflection.

Is it meaningful to have a disease?-Apparently, this is an odd question. It is often assumed, however, that diseases can have meaning.

Teaching ethical competencies is an essential component of professional and postgraduate curricula. Developing practical-ethical problem-solving competencies as well as appraising program-specific studies and related research ethics are topics typically addressed. However, assessment of these ethical competencies poses a challenge. Written or oral assessment formats addressing relevant learning objectives is mainly limited to knowledge testing alone, often not capturing relevant skills or attitudes pertinent to those competencies.

In spring 2020, as much of the world was emerging from widespread "lockdowns" as an emergency measure to combat the spread of SARS-CoV‑2, there was sustained discussion about how to lift measures while preventing further waves of the virus and the need for further lockdowns. One strategy that attracted significant attention was the use of digital contact-tracing apps to quickly alert users of possible exposure to the virus, and to direct them into quarantine. The initially high expectations placed upon this strategy were not met-despite the implementation of a digital contact-tracing app in Germany, further restrictions have been placed on the general population in response to further waves of the virus. We consider how digital contact tracing might have been made more effective.

This interview study investigated ethical issues in long-term care facilities from the perspective of caregivers during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Due to the explorative as well as descriptive methodological approach, interview data are available and can be assigned to four central topics, which reveal a complex and sometimes conflictual reality of work and life in long-term care during the pandemic. On the one hand, the protective measures taken by the state and the institutions, as well as the resulting restrictions on the personal freedom of the residents are critically reflected and the degree of self-determination of the residents of nursing homes in the pandemic is questioned. On the other hand - given the pandemic-related measures - nursing activities in long-term care facilities as a place of work and life are described as challenging, especially regarding the changed nursing processes and quality of care, as well as due to the changed quality of relationships with the residents.