Obituary of Hans-Martin Friedrich Ludwig Sass

HANS-MARTIN SASS

December 4, 1935 – February 6, 2023

Prof. Dr. phil. Hans-Martin Sass transitioned peacefully into spirit in his sleep. He was born in 1935 in Hagen, Germany to the late Pastor Hans and Else Sass. He was preceded by his wife, Renate, in 2004. He is survived by his daughters, Gabriele Sass, Angelika Sass, his granddaughters, Elisabeth and Anna, his sister, Annemarie Clarke, and his brother, Klaus Sass.

Hans-Martin was a philosopher and bioethicist. He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Germany and Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. He also held academic positions at People’s University of China and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing. He was a founder of the Bochum Center for Medical Ethics and the Academy for Ethics in Medicine in Goettingen, Germany. Prof. Sass was a member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO. He authored more than 250 articles and books, publishing widely in the field of bioethics and European continental philosophy, particularly Hegel and Marx.

Hans-Martin was a Knight of Justice of the Order of St. John (Johanniter). In 2015, he was awarded Germany’s Federal Cross of Merit.

Memorial Services will be held on March 4, 2023 at 11:00 AM at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Bethesda, MD and on March 11, 2023 at 11:00AM at Washington Plaza Baptist Church in Reston, VA.