Study group on ethics of birth

The purpose of this study group is to conduct a wide-ranging scientific inquiry on concrete phenomena related to people's life and survival, institutions and policies that support it, and the ethical norms the latter are based upon, using reproduction and birth as the axis of the inquiry. The concrete content of research is mainly: (1) Research on historical changes of family and community as the fundamental units of life and survival, (2) Inquiry from the point of view of medical sociology into attitudes towards pregnancy, abortion, and embryo, (3) Destabilization and reexamination of parenthood following use of assisted reproductive technology, (4) Examination of the scope of parents' rights and duties towards children from the points of view of historical sociology and normative theory, and (5) Research from the standpoint of sociology of science on the relationships between the patient, the medical professional, and the citizen in relation to advanced medical technology. The research conducted by the study group is mainly significant in the sense that while the members conduct interdisciplinary research on a wide range of concrete problems, at the same time they find common normative points, thus finding theoretic answers in the normative sphere that are firmly grounded in the complexity of each individual problem, offering a model method of inquiry for the science of “Ars Vivendi” as a whole.