Bioethics in Germany: debates and infrastructure.

In Germany the public awareness on ethical problems of the application of medicine and life sciences on human beings is very high. It can be observed that German Society is rather sensitive concerning bioethical issues. Politics supports this attitude. Many articles in professional journals as well as in newspapers cover bioethical issues. Conferences and workshops on a professional and an educational level deal with topics on ethics of life sciences and ethics in general. Moreover, in the case of bioethics many different disciplines contribute with relevant considerations to the process of opinion and judgment formation. This paper summarizes the main ethical and legal debates on bioethical issues in Germany, specifies the focus of leading German centres of bioethics and biolaw, and explains the tasks, services and networking of the German Reference Centre for Ethics in the Life Sciences (DRZE) which was founded by the Federal Government.