How to derive ethically appropriate recommendations for action? A methodology for applied ethics.

Researchers in applied ethics, and some areas of bioethics particularly, aim to develop concrete and appropriate recommendations for action in morally relevant real-world situations. When proceeding from more abstract levels of ethical reasoning to such concrete recommendations, however, even with regard to the very same normative principle or norm, it seems possible to develop divergent or even contradictory recommendations for action regarding a certain situation. This may give the impression that such recommendations would be arbitrary and, hence, not well justified.

Joint Interaction and Mutual Understanding in Social Robotics.

Social robotics aims at designing robots capable of joint interaction with humans. On a conceptual level, sufficient mutual understanding is usually said to be a necessary condition for joint interaction. Against this background, the following questions remain open: in which sense is it legitimate to speak of human-robot joint interaction? What exactly does it mean to speak of humans and robots sufficiently understanding each other to account for human-robot joint interaction? Is such joint interaction effectively possible by reference, e.

[AI-Based Self-Tracking of the Mind: Philosophical-Ethical Implications].

Objective: AI-based applications are increasingly developed to support users to digitally record, manage and change their emotions, beliefs and behavior patterns. Such forms of self-tracking in the mental sphere are accompanied by a variety of medical benefits in diagnostics, prevention, and therapy. This article pursues the question of which philosophical-ethical implications must be taken into account when dealing with these advantages.

Human germline editing in the era of CRISPR-Cas: risk and uncertainty, inter-generational responsibility, therapeutic legitimacy.

Background: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-associated (CRISPR-Cas) technology may allow for efficient and highly targeted gene editing in single-cell embryos. This possibility brings human germline editing into the focus of ethical and legal debates again.

Main Body: Against this background, we explore essential ethical and legal questions of interventions into the human germline by means of CRISPR-Cas: How should issues of risk and uncertainty be handled? What responsibilities arise regarding future generations? Under which conditions can germline editing measures be therapeutically legitimized? For this purpose, we refer to a scenario anticipating potential further development in CRISPR-Cas technology implying improved accuracy and exclusion of germline transmission to future generations.

Lethal privacy: Quantifying life years lost if the right to informational self-determination guides genetic screening for Lynch syndrome.

Genetic relatives of hereditary colorectal cancer patients with Lynch syndrome (LS) are at risk of cancer. Testing both colorectal cancer patients and relatives of mutation carriers for LS allows targeted prevention. However, this could mean disclosing sensitive health data to family members.

Applying systems biology to biomedical research and health care: a précising definition of systems medicine.

Background: Systems medicine has become a key word in biomedical research. Although it is often referred to as P4-(predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory)-medicine, it still lacks a clear definition and is open to interpretation. This conceptual lack of clarity complicates the scientific and public discourse on chances, risks and limits of Systems Medicine and may lead to unfounded hopes.

How Do Patients Experience Individualized Medicine? A Qualitative Interview-based Study of Gene Expression Analyses in the Treatment of Breast Cancer.

Introduction: In recent years, the hopes and expectations associated with so-called individualized medicine have been the subject of intense debate as has the medical potential of this approach. Questions about the uses of gene expression analyses for decisions on adjuvant systemic treatment options for patients with breast cancer have played a prominent role in this debate. There are a number of empirical studies on the effect of gene expression tests on the therapy decisions of physicians and the potentially conflicted decisions for patients.

Using needs-based frameworks for evaluating new technologies: an application to genetic tests.

Given the multitude of newly available genetic tests in the face of limited healthcare budgets, the European Society of Human Genetics assessed how genetic services can be prioritized fairly. Using (health) benefit maximizing frameworks for this purpose has been criticized on the grounds that rather than maximization, fairness requires meeting claims (e.g.

[Criteria for an ethically adequate prioritisation of individualised treatment strategies].

Objectives: In view of the constant increase of biomedical innovations as well as the demographic change an explicit regulation of health services is inevitable in the German health-care system. Particularly, this applies to so-called individualised treatment measures, which so far only rarely show significant advantages over "classical" treatment measures with mostly substantially higher costs. Against this background, appropriate prioritisation criteria are developed and possibilities as well as limits of their application in the context of individualised medicine are shown.

What is personalized medicine: sharpening a vague term based on a systematic literature review.

Background: Recently, individualized or personalized medicine (PM) has become a buzz word in the academic as well as public debate surrounding health care. However, PM lacks a clear definition and is open to interpretation. This conceptual vagueness complicates public discourse on chances, risks and limits of PM.

Re-focusing the ethical discourse on personalized medicine: a qualitative interview study with stakeholders in the German healthcare system.

Background: In recent years, personalized medicine (PM) has become a highly regarded line of development in medicine. Yet, it is still a relatively new field. As a consequence, the discussion of its future developments, in particular of its ethical implications, in most cases can only be anticipative.