Hans Joachim Schwager Award

The v. Bodelschwinghsche Stiftungen Bethel and the International Conference on Clinical Ethics and Consultation (ICCEC) are pleased to announce a new prize in clinical ethics, the Hans Joachim Schwager Award.

Professor Schwager was a pioneer in clinical ethics support in Germany and a member of the Board of Directors of the v. Bodelschwinghsche Stiftungen Bethel, the sponsor of the Hans Joachim Schwager Award.

The Award will be given annually in the amount of 5,000 Euros to encourage individuals and groups engaged in clinical ethics support to communicate their experiences, achievements, and challenges to a larger audience and to support clinical ethics practitioners who have successfully implemented ethical consultation in healthcare facilities.

Deadline for receipt of full application is October 1st, 2012. The Award will be presented at the 2013 ICCEC in Munich, Germany, for the first time. More information

ICCEC2012: Clinical Bioethics in Diversity

The theme of the Congress that will be held in Brazil - São Paulo is about the Clinical Bioethics in Diversity. A central philosophy issue for this field is whether there is or is not a single canonical method for clinical ethics that can solve the ethical problems in all institutional scenarios. Some believe that a method of universal human rights or a method based on common morality will provide this basis. Others recognize that there are various moral communities and that the particular and real value commitments of these communities are so complex and involving that should be taken into account. Beyond these comprehensive issues, there are differences arising among legal jurisdictions, and process and procedure differences among the institutions that make the provision of ethical advisory services much more complicated than frequently appreciated. Understanding how these differences form ethical advisory and to what extent they change the regulatory foundations of that field will be doubtlessly an exciting component for this Congress.

The main goal of the conferences is to promote the development of the field of clinical ethics and ethical advisory. A second goal is to internationally promote clinical ethics and allow debates under an interdisciplinary focus upon which experts can approach common themes and issues from their professional experiences. It is important that these conferences are not centered on the individual agendas of private institutions or professional societies. For such, we believe that we will show significant progress against the academic and interdisciplinary debate upon which clinical ethics and ethical advisory will be discussed particularly and comprehensively.

Background
This series of conferences was started by George J. Agich and Stella Reiter-Theil to fill the significant gap that they perceived in the field between the explosion of clinical ethics, ethics committees, and ethics consultation services around the world and the relative lack of critical and academic discussion of the many practical, institutional, and ethical issues associated with this work. 

Each conference is organized by a local host, who oversees local arrangements. An international program committee oversees the development of the program, including setting the program theme and overseeing reviews of abstracts.