„I would like to invite you to the exciting fields of Medical Ethics and Public Health. We are facing great challenges and countless opportunities shaping our future and making the world a healthier place for everybody.“
Sebastian Schmidt, EMSA Medical Ethics and Public Health Director 2010 – 2011

MEDICAL ETHICS: FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

As a doctor you have to make ethical decisions on a daily basis. You might have to deal with

very sick people who beg you to end their lives and thereby their suffering. Or you are asked

to include your patients in clinical drug research programmes by allocating them randomly

into groups with and without treatment. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish right from

wrong, but fortunately moral competences can be trained. We aim to provide you with many

opportunities for discussing and debating that will enable you to form your own opinion on

certain issues in a reflective manner.

PUBLIC HEALTH: EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

There are some diseases you have to face as a doctor again and again. You treat obese patients

having diabetes, tobacco addicts that got a lung cancer or people with a chronic pancreatitis that

used to drink a lot of alcohol. Public health focuses on preventing those widespread diseases by

education, empowerment and health promotion on every possible level. We create a framework

of specific projects for you to get active and to work on those issues that interest you the most

while having the chance to collaborate with link-minded people across Europe.

MEDICAL ETHICS MEETS PUBLIC HEALTH: HEALTH FOR ALL

Since the globalization is inevitable on its way, the need for making sustainable decisions is

increasing every day. The world is a complex, interdependent system and therefore new

challenges require us to be creative, innovative and keen on experimenting while not losing the

focus on the patient as an individual. We want to make sure that ethical thinking is brought back

into discussions on global health in which cost-effectiveness has been declared as the main goal.

We want to raise awareness of essential medicines, the impacts of social determinants and the

effects of climate change on health. And we want to encourage you to meet these challenges so

that together we can reach our common vision: health for all.