The German Reference Centre for Ethics in the Life Sciences (DRZE) is a national documentation and information centre for the entire field of ethics in the biomedical sciences in Germany.
The DRZE is a central scientific institution of the University of Bonn. Upon the discontinuation of the BMBF’s funding of the project “Ethics in the Life Sciences”, the DRZE applied to be part of the “Akademienprogramm”. The project was admitted into the research programme of the German Scientific Academies on 1 January, 2004, as a research project of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.
It has the task of:
- to scientifically elaborate the normative foundations of qualified judgement formation and to make them available in various formats;
- to prepare and make available information from a wide variety of fields on the current bioethical discussion in science, society and politics;
- to promote scientific networking and thus advance the German, European and international discourse.

Biodiversity in the Anthropocene –
Restore or Design?
16 October 2023 – Universitätsclub Bonn
In the context of the 13th "Ethik-Forum", renowned experts will shed light in a panel discussion on how an appropriate understanding of biodiversity conservation can be developed under the conditions of the Anthropocene. Should natural processes be managed for the purpose of restoration and preservation with as little human intervention as possible, or must a greater claim to design be derived in the age of the Anthropocene?
In Focus
The short information In Focus enables interested non-specialists in particular to get a quick overview of the debate on a current bioethical topic.

Animal Experiments in Research

Organ Transplantation
Expert Reports
The aim of the series "Ethics in the Life Sciences - Expert Reports of the DRZE" is to prepare ethical problem areas from the field of the life sciences in a scientifically sound manner for interdisciplinary and societal discourse by comprehensively presenting the respective state of research and discussion.

Demenz ("Dementia")
Sebastian Knell / Dietmar Thal / Volker Lipp

Imaging in the neurosciences
Jan-Hendrik Heinrichs / Svenja Caspers / Alfons Schnitzler / Frederike Seitz
News
Here you will find news on current topics, projects and events of the DRZE.

New employee
We warmly welcome Elena Krämer to the DRZE.

Dirk Lanzerath elected Vice-Chairman of the ZEKO
The members of ZEKO elected Prof. Dr. Dirk Lanzerath as Vice-Chairman for the upcoming 10th term (2023-2025) at their constituent meeting on March 9, 2023.

Talk by Dirk Lanzerath
"Patient-Oriented Data Use"
Bioethics Forum of the German Ethics Council on 22 March 2023 in Berlin

Kick-off PRACC
Start of a new DRZE project on climate ethics.

Kick-off irecs
Start of a new DRZE project on research ethics.