Manuel Trachsel, PD Dr. med. Dr. phil.

Manuel Trachsel (MD, PhD) is the head of the Clinical Ethics Unit at the University Hospital Basel, the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel, the Geriatric University Hospital Basel, and the University Children’s Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Trachsel has been trained in medicine (MD), psychology (PhD), and philosophy (MA) at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He has been a visiting research fellow at the Bioethics Center of the University of Otago, New Zealand (2014), and a research fellow at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA (2016-2017).

Dr. Trachsel has been awarded with the 2020 Mark S. Ehrenreich Global Prize in Healthcare Ethics Research by the Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics, University of Southern California.

Dr. Trachsel’s research areas include the philosophy and ethics of psychiatry and psychotherapy, the intersection of psychiatry and palliative care, ethical challenges with regard to coercive measures in psychiatry, clinical ethics support services in psychiatry, medical decision-making capacity, and informed consent.

He is a published author of more than 100 scientific papers, book chapters, and books including articles in JAMA, The Lancet Psychiatry, The American Journal of Bioethics, The Journal of Medical Ethics, The British Journal of Psychiatry, and Frontiers in Psychiatry among others. Furthermore, Dr. Trachsel is the lead editor of the Oxford Handbook of Psychotherapy Ethics.

Charlotte Wetterauer, Dr. iur.

Charlotte Wetterauer (Lawyer, PhD) is a certified Clinical Ethics Consultant and deputy head of the Clinical Ethics Unit at the University Hospital Basel, the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel, the Geriatric University Hospital Basel, and the University Children’s Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Wetterauer holds a degree in law and wrote her doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Law of the University of Basel on ethical and legal aspects of dealing with (in)capable patients in the tension between autonomy and beneficence within the frame of the Swiss Adult Protection Law (insigni cum laude). She is also working as a lecturer for medical ethics in the medical curriculum of the University of Basel. 

Her research interests include legal issues in clinical ethics, especially decision making capacity, assisted suicide, pre-implementation diagnostics, as well as shared decision making and organizational ethics.

Jan Schürmann, Dr. sc. med.

Jan Schürmann (MA PhD) holds a master’s degree in philosophy and history of arts and a PhD in biomedical ethics from the University of Basel. He is working as a senior clinical ethicist at the University Hospital Basel, the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel, the Geriatric University Hospital Basel, and the University Children’s Hospital Basel, Switzerland. He is certified as a clinical ethics consultant, coordinator, and trainer for ethics consultation by the Akademie für Ethik in der Medizin (AEM). He is also working as a lecturer for medical ethics in the medical curriculum of the University of Basel and the nursing curriculum of the Bern University of Applied Sciences.

His research interests include clinical ethics support, issues in clinical ethics, theory and methods of bioethics, psychiatric ethics, and organizational ethics.

Anna Westermair, Dr. med.

Anna Westermair (MD) is a clinical ethicist with the Clinical Ethics Unit at the University Hospital Basel, the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel, the Geriatric University Hospital Basel, and the University Children’s Hospital Basel, Switzerland, and senior research assistant at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. Westermair has been trained in medicine (MD) and psychology (B.Sc.) at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, the Paris Descartes University, France, and the distance-learning university Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany. She currently pursues a PhD in biomedical ethics on ethical dilemmas in severe eating disorders at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. Westermair has extensive clinical experience and is board certified in psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, psycho-oncology, and palliative care (Germany).

Dr. Westermair’s research areas include the ethics of psychiatry and psychotherapy with a focus on the intersection of psychiatry and palliative care, futility, ethical challenges with regard to coercive measures in psychiatry, and clinical ethics support services in psychiatry.

She is a published author of more than 25 scientific papers and book chapters, including articles in The American Journal of Bioethics, the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, and the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.