NEW_LIVES at BMBF conference "ELSA in the Life Sciences" in Berlin

21.06.2023 | Collaborative project presents first approaches

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) had invited us to attend the 7th status seminar "ELSA in the Life Sciences" in Berlin on June 20/21, 2023. "ELSA" stands for "Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects" and refers to a research field that deals with the assessment of the ethical, legal and social consequences of new technologies. This research field is supported by a special BMBF grant scheme, from which NEW_LIVES also receives its funding. The bi-annual status seminars serve information and networking purposes for all the projects that form part of the ELSA grant scheme.

At the seminar, NEW_LIVES provided information on our research questions and some first results in the context of a brief talk and a poster presentation. The poster presentation focused on the medical and technical basics of genomic newborn screening as well as on ethical and legal issues. In many conversations, we addressed the opportunities and risks of genomic newborn screening were addressed and discussed, in particular, the interests and rights of children. NEW_LIVES was represented in Berlin by Prof. Dr. Dr. Eva Winkler (project lead and principal investigator of subproject 1: Ethics), Prof. Dr. Ralf Müller-Terpitz (principal investigator of subproject 2: Law) as well as Karla Alex and Sascha Settegast (both subproject 1: Ethics).