Alena Buyx

Alena Buyx
Buyx at re:publica in 2022
Born (1977-09-29) 29 September 1977
Alma mater
Scientific career
FieldsMedical ethics
Institutions

Alena Michaela Buyx (German pronunciation: ['aleːna mɪçaˈʔeːla ˈbʏks]; born 29 September 1977 in Osnabrück) is a German medical ethicist and professor. She was the Chair of the German Ethics Council from 2020 until April 2024.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Buyx attended the Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium in Ibbenbüren. From 1997, she studied medicine, philosophy, sociology and health sciences at the University of Münster, the University of York (UK), and University College London, supported by a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation). In 2005, she received her medical doctorate (Dr. med.), obtained her medical license (Approbation), and earned a Magister Artium degree in philosophy and sociology from the University of Münster.[4]

Academic Career

From 2006 to 2008, she worked as a research associate at the Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine at the University of Münster. In 2008/09, she was an Academic Scholar at the Harvard University Program in Ethics and Health at Harvard Medical School. From 2009 to 2012, she served as Assistant Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in London.[5]

She completed her habilitation in Münster in 2013, receiving the venia legendi (teaching qualification) in ethics, history and theory of medicine. From 2012 to 2014, she headed the DFG-Emmy Noether Group "Bioethics and Political Philosophy" at the University of Münster and was a Senior Research Fellow in Public Policy at University College London until 2015.[4]

In 2014, the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel appointed Buyx as Professor of Medical Ethics. She simultaneously served as Co-Director of the Institute for Experimental Medicine at the University of Kiel.[5] In 2016, she was appointed as a member of the German Ethics Council and became its chair in 2020.[3]

In September 2018, she accepted the call from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) to the W3 professorship for Ethics in Medicine and Health Technologies.[6] She is Director of the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine at TUM. In 2020, she was elected to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in the philosophy of science section and the acatech (German Academy of Science and Engineering).[7][8]

Public Engagement

Buyx is committed to science communication and public engagement. Since August 2025, she has been co-moderator (alternating with journalist Stephanie Rohde) of the science discussion program "Nano Talk" on 3sat, the successor format to the interdisciplinary discussion program "Scobel".[9] In 2025, her book Leben und Sterben: Die großen Fragen ethisch entscheiden (Life and Death: Making Ethical Decisions on the Big Questions) became a Spiegel bestseller.[10]

She regularly gives public lectures on various medical ethics topics and appears in television and other media. She is committed to communicating with the public and making ethical considerations accessible to a broad audience.[4][9]

Reception

As Chair of the German Ethics Council from 2020 to 2024, Buyx played a prominent role during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ethics Council issued several statements and recommendations on ethical aspects of pandemic management, including on vaccination priorities, solidarity and responsibility, and the protection of vulnerable groups. During this time, she also served on the Federal Government's Corona Expert Council from December 2021 to April 2023.[11]

In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Buyx came under criticism for advocating measures such as the widespread 2G rule and a vaccination mandate without questioning them critically. Critics accused her of acting too close to the government and of not representing sufficiently independent positions.[12][13]

Other activities

Personal life

In April 2023, Buyx was one of the 22 personal guests at the ceremony in which former Chancellor Angela Merkel was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit for special achievement by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Schloss Bellevue in Berlin.[18]

Selected publications

  • A. Fiske, P. Henningsen, A. Buyx: Your robot therapist will see you now: Ethical implications of embodied artificial intelligence in psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 21(5), 2019, S. e13216, doi:10.2196/13216.
  • A. Sierawska, A. Buyx: Unmet Needs in Children with ADHD - Can tDCS Fill the Gap? Promises and Ethical Challenges. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2019. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00334.
  • G. Richter, C. Borzikowsky, W. Lieb, S. Schreiber, M. Krawczak, A. Buyx: Patient views on research use of clinical data without consent: Legal, but also acceptable? European Journal of Human Genetics. 2019. doi:10.1038/s41431-019-0340-6.
  • B. Prainsack, A. Buyx: The value of work and labour: Addressing the Future of Work (FOW) through the lens of solidarity. Bioethics. 32(9), 2018, pp. 585–592. doi:10.1111/bioe.12507.
  • A. Fiske, A. Buyx, B. Prainsack: Health Information Counselors: A New Profession for the Age of Big Data? Academic Medicine. 2018. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000002395. PMID 30095453.
  • G. Richter, M. Krawczak, W. Lieb, L. Wolff, S. Schreiber, A. Buyx: Broad consent for healthcare-embedded biobanking: understanding and reasons to donate in a large patient sample. Genetics in Medicine. 20(1), 2018, pp. 76–82. doi:10.1038/gim.2017.82. PMID 28640237.
  • J. Littmann, A. Rid, A. Buyx: Tackling anti-microbial resistance. Ethical framework for rational antibiotic use. European Journal of Public Health. 28(2), 2018, pp. 359–363. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckx165.
  • B. Prainsack, A. Buyx: Solidarity in biomedicine and beyond. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  • B. Prainsack, A. Buyx: Solidarity: Reflections on an emerging concept in bioethics. 2011.

References

  1. ^ "Ex-Ethikratschefin Alena Buyx zieht Bilanz". 19 June 2024.
  2. ^ "Auch ein verurteilter Arzt dabei: Fraktionen schlagen neue Ethikratmitglieder vor". Der Tagesspiegel Online.
  3. ^ a b "Alena Buyx ist Vorsitzende des Deutschen Ethikrats". www.tum.de. 13 May 2020.
  4. ^ a b c "TUM Professoren - Buyx_Alena". www.professoren.tum.de.
  5. ^ a b "Alena Buyx". Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
  6. ^ "Alena Buyx" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  7. ^ "Alena Buyx". acatech (in German). Retrieved 2026-02-13.
  8. ^ "Leopoldina: Detail". www.leopoldina.org. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
  9. ^ a b "Du suchst Antworten? Dann bist du im NANO Talk mit Alena Buyx genau richtig!". www.3sat.de (in German). 2025-08-28. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
  10. ^ Kullmann, Kerstin (2025-03-22). "Meinung: Alena Buyx über selbstbestimmtes Sterben, die Gesichter der Corona-Pandemie - Lese-Empfehlungen". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
  11. ^ "Ad hoc recommendations". Deutscher Ethikrat. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
  12. ^ Berliner Zeitung (2 October 2024). "Alena Buyx: Bundesverdienstkreuz für die Corona-Expertin, die keine war" (in German). Retrieved 2024-12-06.
  13. ^ Cicero. "Wie abhängig war der Ethikrat?" (in German). Retrieved 2024-12-31.
  14. ^ Board of Trustees, Free University of Berlin.
  15. ^ Board of Trustees Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence.
  16. ^ Scientific Advisory Board Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
  17. ^ "WHO Expert Advisory Committee on Developing Global Standards for Governance and Oversight of Human Genome Editing". WHO. Archived from the original on February 22, 2019.
  18. ^ Kati Degenhardt (17 April 2023), Merkels emotionaler Dank: "Er hatte Vieles auszuhalten" T-Online.
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