Progress in today's highly technological medicine, above all in genetics and 'reproduction', is more likely to cause public disapproval rather than applause. Technology seems to have replaced humanity, what is possible technically seems to have blown apart the framework of what is morally acceptable. In particular, stem cell research, cloning, and implant diagnostics are called in question. Criticisms made in the media and by politicians, also by well-known theologians, are often based on an irrational hostility to technology which has an understandable prehistory. These are also based on theoretically conceived catastrophic scenarios as arguments for breaching the dyke. If the question of values is raised, this has mostly to do with social-ethics, since it seems that a situational ethics attuned to individuals is what is considered publicly acceptable today. The concept of human dignity also, despite its fundamental importance for the moral cohesion of our society; is infected by relativism by being used in these debates not as an absolute value but as a mere ascription to human life.

Enthalten in:
Theologische Literaturzeitung; 2002/Nr.7/8 Monatsschrift für das gesamte Gebiet der Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (2002)

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Serie / Reihe: Theologische Literaturzeitung

Personen: Riha, Ortrun

Schlagwörter: Bioethik Medizinische Ethik