Abstract
The great advances in genetics and biomedicine have increased the “individual’s course of action” immensely. This opinion is expressed by the sociologist Hans Jonas and he adds that, up until now, we have lacked the specification of our values necessary to make this choice. This means, more precisely, that the more we are able to do things that surpass what so far has been impossible, the more we have to be sure whether we wish to do everything that we could do — and why we may deliberately refrain from doing some things. Constitutional and bio-ethical issues cannot be viewed separately. The importance of this issue is currently particularly demonstrated by pre-implantation diagnosis, research with embryos and embryonic stem cells, and by anonymous donation of semen. I would like to make you acquainted with these three topics, and present my thoughts on fundamental bioethical and constitutional issues.
Lecture held at the Humboldt Forum, Humboldt University of Berlin on the 29th of October, 2003.
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English version reprinted in the annex of this volume, under V 20.
F.A.Z., 3 September 2003, p. 33. Emphasis added.
English version reprinted in the annex of this volume, under V 19.
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© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Zypries, B. (2004). From Procreation to Generation? Constitutional and Legal-Political Issues in Bioethics. In: Vöneky, S., Wolfrum, R. (eds) Human Dignity and Human Cloning. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6174-1_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6174-1_11
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