Not only the war of aggression in Ukraine comes to mind. The national and individual egoisms during the pandemic, the gap between the poor and the super-rich, the overexploitation of natural resources, the habitat that humanity is taking away from other species to the point of their extinction, or the lack of consensus on immediate, comprehensive climate protection for the benefit of all also come to mind.

"There is a great need for orientation," states ethics professor Christiane Woopen. In the future, she would like to raise her voice in the international discussion about this from Bonn. Following a call from the university for one of the new Heinrich Hertz professorships, Woopen has pitched her tents in the house of the Post Foundation on Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße, not far from the banks of the Rhine.

The moving boxes full of books have been standing unpacked in her office since April because the wrong shelves were delivered. But the Cologne native and her 25-member team from 14 disciplines have long since started work in the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Individuals, Institutions and Societies“.

In a prominent ceremony on Monday, 24 October, Woopen will officially open her new "Centre for Life Ethics" and the associated "House of Young Thinking" together with Minister President Hendrik Wüst, Lord Mayor Katja Dörner and University Rector Professor Michael Hoch, among others.

The University of Excellence Bonn is thus not only sharpening its profile in the seven clusters of excellence, but also as a source of impulses for central questions of the human future.

Christiane Woopen has so far made a name for herself primarily as a medical ethicist. After studying medicine in Cologne, she completed her doctorate in Bonn and went on to study philosophy. She devoted herself to biomedical ethics at the Institute for Science and Ethics in Bonn and finally returned to Cologne in 2009 to take up a professorship in ethics and the theory of medicine. From 2012, Woopen chaired the German Ethics Council for four years and since 2017 has been chair of the European Ethics Council, which advises the EU Commission.

With the Center for Life Ethics, the 59-year-old wants to expand the focus to four developments that are currently influencing life in all its facets. These include mechanisation, economisation, but also ecologisation and globalisation.

In the health sector, technology is marching ahead: this requires entirely new competencies

In order to promote international visibility and not to be perceived as ethical life counselling, Woopen has chosen the English name for her "centre". But it is not meant to exclude. The exchange with the population is important to her. "We want to build a place for encounter and dialogue," she emphasises.

That's why the "House of Young Thinking" is intended to stimulate fresh discussions on ethical issues. Values may, indeed must, be argued about, as long as there is a willingness for dialogue on both sides. "I understand ethics as shaping, inspiring. That is the colour we want to give ethics here," says the scientist.

A study on the influence of 16 international tech companies on the health sector, which Woopen and her team recently published, shows where the journey can lead.

Increasing mechanisation is leading to a shift from the medical therapy of existing ailments to the prediction and prevention of diseases. What is pleasing at first glance, on the other hand, requires new competences for dealing with such predictions without discrimination, as well as respect for the right to privacy and individual self-determination.

"Can there be a right of corporations to destroy the world?"

The ethicists warn against increasing monopolisation by a few corporations that promptly take over all creative start-ups. "This gives them an interpretative sovereignty over our lives that is no longer democratically legitimised," Woopen warns.

On the other hand, he says, a learning system must emerge from the digitally collected treatment data in order to optimise medical care. "In Germany, the solidarity community pays one billion euros for the health system every day. Therefore, it is ethically imperative to learn from these investments," she believes.

In a recent hearing before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg, Woopen proved that she can also ask uncomfortable questions on the international stage. The question was whether the freedoms of companies may be restricted in order to protect the climate.

The question was wrongly posed, Woopen ruled. "I asked: can there be a right of corporations to destroy the world?" Because such a right is ethically indefensible, he said, there can be no such "freedom rights" of companies to be restricted at all.

Original text: Martin Wein

Translation: Mareike Graepel