Hans-Martin Sass is a bioethicist.
He is a Professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at Ruhr University

Ruhr University

Ruhr University Bochum , located on the southern hills of central Ruhr area Bochum, was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany since World War II...

, Bochum, Germany, and a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics

Kennedy Institute of Ethics

The Kennedy Institute of Ethics was established at Georgetown University in 1971 as a bioethics center, think tank and library.Scholars based at the Institute, as of 2009, include Ruth Faden and Tom Beauchamp....

 at Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

, Washington DC.

Life

He holds academic positions at People's University of China and Peking Union Medical College

Peking Union Medical College

Peking Union Medical College is among the most selective medical colleges in the People's Republic of China and is renowned both in its own right and for being connected to one of China's most prestigious institutions of higher learning.-History:...

 in Beijing, China, and is a founder of the Bochum Center for Medical Ethics in 1985. He is editor of the Ethik in der Praxis / Practical Ethics

Practical Ethics

The book Practical Ethics is an introduction to applied ethics written by modern bioethical philosopher Peter Singer. It was originally published in 1979 and has since been translated into a number of languages. The book caused outrage in Germany, Austria and Switzerland...

 series at Lit Publishers, Muenster, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, and the Medizinethische Materialien, Bochum. He is the author of over 250 articles and books. He was a member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO and is a member of many international and national advisory bodies and to philosophical and bioethical journals.

An expert in European continental philosophy, he has been published widely on Hegel, Marx, 19th and 20th century German philosophy and liberal political theory. During his research, teaching, and consulting in cultural risk assessment

Risk assessment

Risk assessment is a step in a risk management procedure. Risk assessment is the determination of quantitative or qualitative value of risk related to a concrete situation and a recognized threat...

, research ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

, clinical ethics, and public health ethics, he has developed a cross-cultural perspective in mayor fields of bioethics, based on concepts of personal and professional responsibility and on regulated markets, on mutual trust and on partnership ethics.

Dr. Sass is a Knight of Justice of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg).

Focus and interest

His main focus in bioethics is on the transition from paternalistic models of patient care towards partnership models between providers and customers of health care. He has developed a widely used and translated ‘Interactive Post-Hippocratic Action Guide’ and other models for communication-in-trust and cooperation-in-trust interactions of individual, institutional and corporate persons in risk assessment, research and business ethics. His proposed virtues and principles for cross-cultural health care ethics include for the patient the balance between quality of life and length of life, individual self-determination and compliance with expert advice, for the expert the balance between professional responsibility and respect for clients’/patients’ autonomy, do-no-harm and do-good; trust, truthfulness and a prudent mix of solidarity and subsidiarity are important for all parties involved in the care for health, quality and happiness of life. He proposes that most ethical issues should be decided by risk-competent and health-literate citizens rather than bureaucracies and legislation, but that governments and institutions have the responsibility to introduce and to support health information and health competence as an essential part of educating risk-competent citizens for the 21st century.

As to health care reform and health education he defines in criticizing the WHO

Who

Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...

approach: Health is not just a status; rather the balanced result of health-literate and risk-competent care of one's own physical, emotional, and social well-being and well-feeling, achieved in competent understanding, modification and enhancement of individual genetic, social and environmental properties, with the support of health care professionals and through equal access health care services, including information, predictive and preventive medicine. He also is concerned that modern principles of bioethics do not put enough emphasis on professionalism and compassion in expert services and on developing and supporting better communication-in-trust and cooperation-in-trust models of provider-customer interactions. His most recent work include studies in cross-cultural bioethics and fundamentally common issues in different cultures of bioethics.

Written works

• Differentialethik (2006, Lit: Muenster, includes Bibliography pp. 247-274)
• "Emergency Management in Public Health Ethics". Eubios J Asian Intern Bioethics 2005;15(5)161-166
• "Ethical Dilemma in Stem Cell Research". Formosan J Medical Humanities 2005; 6(3&4)
• "E-Health: Health Promotion and Wellness Communities". Eubios J Asian Intern Bioethics 2004;14:170-174
• "Asian and Western Bioethics – Converging, Conflicting, Competing". Eubios. J Asian Intern Bioethics 2004; 14:13-22
• "Formulating Global Post-Hippocratic Health Care Virtues". Europe Phil’s of Medicine & Health Care 2(1):6-10; also J Intern Bioethique 1995;6(1):5-7; Kos 1995; 118:46-51
• "Bochum Working Paper on the Practice of Medical Ethics" (with Herbert Viefhues, transl by Stuart Spicker), Bochum: Zentrum fuer Medizinische Ethik, January 1988

Sources