We have developed a first generation tool for the unbiased identification and characterization of human pluripotent stem cells, termed PluriTest. This assay utilizes all the information contained on a microarray and abandons the conventional stem cell marker concept. Stem cells are defined by the ability to replenish themselves and to differentiate into more mature cell types. As differentiation potential is a property that cannot be directly proven in the stem cell state, biologists have to rely on correlative measurements in stem (...) cells associated with differentiation potential. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of those markers are only valid within narrow limits of specific experimental systems. Microarray technologies and recently next‐generation sequencing have revolutionized how cellular phenotypes can be characterized on a systems‐wide level. Here we discuss the challenges PluriTest and similar global assays need to address to fulfill their enormous potential for industrial, diagnostic and therapeutic applications. (shrink)

Definition of the problem: In health care institutions caregivers from different cultures treat patients who themselves may come from different cultural backgrounds. The ethical impact of this issue is how in spite of these cultural differences mutual understanding can be achieved. Modern health care systems must react to this multicultural challenge explaining: what does universality of the medical task mean, what are the consequences of demographic change, how to deal with the multicultural work force of the modern health care facilities, (...) and how one must differentiate between universal and variable elements of the health care delivery. The following questions are discussed: 1. Which aspects of medicine require consideration of the multicultural structures? 2. Which medical fields must especially integrate multicultural perspectives? 3. How the patient's cultural context can be taken into account.Arguments: These levels of the problem are illustrated by the through the case of a German University hospital which presents a difficult decision making process.Conclusion: Three requirements result from this: 1. to work out the differences of behaviour, 2. to define the differences of value systems of both parts, the patient and the caregiver, and 3. to agree on mutual goals and values. (shrink)

Corona showed us how important the medical and statistical data are. They inform, but are difficult to understand. We need more. We know too little about how people cope with problems, too little about what our life together depends on. We need a deeper understanding, in order to perceive the dangers to our personal and social life. This book tries to do that with thoughtfulness: it raises questions and calls apparent self-evident facts in question, it connects intellectual sources of thought (...) by linking experiences from history, literature with the current problems of the corona crisis. And where do we go from here? Are there ways out of a battered social life to a new solidarity? (shrink)

Blumenberg‘s phenomenological anthropology replaces the traditional question: What is the human being? with the following question: How is being human even possible? This question expresses a great mistrust over the ability of copying with human life. According to Blumenberg, man can survive only when he keeps distance from the threatening world in a literal as well as metaphorical sense. As an upright animal, who sees and can be seen, he can experience being hunted but also being the hunter in order (...) to bring himself into safety from what threatens him as well as succeeding in hunting. In a metaphorical sense, man takes distance from the almighty reality through myths, religion, science, technology, art, resp . culture as reliable ways to cope with anxiety and threats in this, for him, dangerous and nameless world. (shrink)

A philosophic critique of the development of postmodern systemic values, including an interpretation of freedom through Locke, Marx and Nietzsche; the impact of globalization on human rights and the contemporary enthronement of profit over human needs.

Cultural philosophy is one of the leading disciplines of contemporary philosophy. The greatest challenge to it today is Naturalism, which – putting it simply – is the basing of Culture on natural phenomena. Even when this endeavor has been achieved, Culture remains in our everyday lives as it always was: its own phenomenon, which we urgently need in order to survive, and to live well. There are many interpretations of Culture, but the most important of all is Culture as a (...) medium of coping with life and the world. A significant sign of Culture is the mastering of reality. Reality, then, is when it rains; Culture is when you use an umbrella! (shrink)

Obwohl der Gewissenbegriff im Bewusstsein der meisten Medizinethiker durch den Strukturwandel im Gesundheitswesen in den letzten Jahrzehnten erheblich an Bedeutung verloren hat, bahnt sich im Zuge der fortschreitenden Pluralisierung des Wertempfindens in modernen Gesellschaften (nicht zuletzt durch das Wiedererstarken religi s-weltanschaulicher Positionen) eine erneute Diskussion um den Gewissensvorbehalt bei der Erbringung medizinischer Leistungen an. Der vorliegende Band n hert sich der Gewissenthematik bewusst aus interdisziplin rer Perspektive, um die verschiedenen Dimensionen einer Gewissenentscheidung auszuleuchten und die Folgen der fortschreitenden Verrechtlichung und (...) konomisierung f r die Gewissensfreiheit der verschiedenen im Gesundheitswesen t tigen Berufsgruppen kritisch zu reflektieren. (shrink)

Der Begriff der,lebensbeendenden Handlungen' umfasst ein breites Spektrum von Praktiken, das von unstreitigen Tötungsdelikten bis hin zu verschiedenen Formen der medizinischen Therapiebegrenzung reicht. Die interdisziplinären Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes versuchen, die ethisch und rechtlich entscheidende Grenze zwischen den Handlungstypen des,Tötens' und des,Sterbenlassens' genauer zu rekonstruieren, um die Handlungssicherheit klinischer Akteure zu erhöhen.