Abstract · The recent outbreak and spreading of the coronavirus epidemic and its severe individual and social consequences cannot be quietly bypassed. We must consider what long-term effects of the epidemic (deaths, job losses, disintegration of social networks, cancellation of major events, early end of the school year) will have on the 21st century members of society. There will be very few of us not robbed of something by the virus. Will shared sense of loss teach us to voice our pain without feeling anxious or ashamed, will it teach us to turn to and listen to mourners with no expectations and judgment?

Abstract · The high standards of peri- and neonatal medical care may provide curing options for the needs of children born with complex malformations, thus improving the quality and the prospects of their lives. At the same time, the number of bioethical dilemmas has increased which are linked to the pre-, peri- and postnatal periods, or may lead even further. The period is remarkable in medical care, since parents and doctors make decisions about the life and care of the child to be born or recently born. Genetic test procedures, diagnosed malformations and the option to terminate the pregnancy as a possible consequence characterise the bioethical tasks of the prenatal stage. Around birth the focus falls on the ‘grey zone’ of prematurity, underlining the need to choose between active, curative treatment and palliative care, the question of ‘good death’, moreover, the authority of decision making. The moral status of the foetus, the newborn child, parental authority and the moral distress suffered by the healthcare professionals span all over the perinatal period as ethical difficulties. Perinatal palliative care, which has yet to be applied more widely in Hungary, may provide individual, customised care in alignment with the mentioned ethical outlook, thoughtfully considering the special circumstances in each case.

Abstract · The article investigates the question if we could develop a viable ethical therory and practice, within or outside bioethics, which would provide the dying patients with help for cultivating their characters and virtues. On the basis of ancient virtue ethics, the medieval Christian tradition of Ars moriendi, as well as the current literature in ethics and theology, I offer a survey of the mostly mentioned related virtues and their roles at the end of life. I assume that it would be of importance to keep this conception of virtues alive, or even to add it to the horizon of modern bioethics.