German ethics council under fire

Opposition politicians say ethics advice should be anchored in parliament, not the Chancellor's office

Written byNed Stafford
| 2 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00
Share

With German national elections looming, leading members of the main opposition parties have expressed deep dissatisfaction with the way that the country's National Ethics Council operates.

The council, formed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2001, comprises 25 members from science, medicine, law, religion, social sciences, and philosophy. Their mandate is to provide guidance about ethical questions in the life sciences, and to act as a public forum for debate.

On June 23 this year, Schroeder extended the life of the council by a further four years, but the move prompted criticism from several members of the conservative CDU/CSU coalition, who said that bioethical discussions belonged in the Bundestag's Enquete Commission for ethics and rights in modern medicine. They called the National Ethics Council superfluous, alleging that the council had been basically a conduit to promote the views of Schroeder.

Thomas Rachel, a CDU/CSU member of the Enquete Commission, was quoted ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Share
July Digest 2025
July 2025, Issue 1

What Causes an Earworm?

Memory-enhancing neural networks may also drive involuntary musical loops in the brain.

View this Issue
Screening 3D Brain Cell Cultures for Drug Discovery

Screening 3D Brain Cell Cultures for Drug Discovery

Explore synthetic DNA’s many applications in cancer research

Weaving the Fabric of Cancer Research with Synthetic DNA

Twist Bio 
Illustrated plasmids in bright fluorescent colors

Enhancing Elution of Plasmid DNA

cytiva logo
An illustration of green lentiviral particles.

Maximizing Lentivirus Recovery

cytiva logo

Products

The Scientist Placeholder Image

Sino Biological Sets New Industry Standard with ProPure Endotoxin-Free Proteins made in the USA

sartorius-logo

Introducing the iQue 5 HTS Platform: Empowering Scientists  with Unbeatable Speed and Flexibility for High Throughput Screening by Cytometry

parse_logo

Vanderbilt Selects Parse Biosciences GigaLab to Generate Atlas of Early Neutralizing Antibodies to Measles, Mumps, and Rubella

shiftbioscience

Shift Bioscience proposes improved ranking system for virtual cell models to accelerate gene target discovery