In 2019, the professorship for Health Care Ethics was newly established at the Institute for Moral Theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Graz and set up by Prof. Martina Schmidhuber. The focus is on the areas of medical ethics and care ethics, bioethics and health-related issues with ethical implications. The professorship's research focuses include the ethics of dementia and ageing, human rights in medicine, reproductive medicine and rare diseases.
The diverse topics and research focuses are also reflected in the various courses offered for the Master's degree in Applied Ethics, the Bachelor's degree in Ethics Education and the extension course in Ethics. The professorship is also involved in teaching at the Medical University of Graz.
Prof. Schmidhuber gives numerous lectures for professionals in the healthcare sector and also for the public. In addition, interdisciplinary conferences on bioethical and medical ethical topics are regularly organized.