Can Nature Serve as a Criterium for the Use of Reproductive Technologies?
In: E. Hildt, D. Mieth (Eds.) (1998) in Vitro Fertilisation in the 1990s: Towards a Medical, Social and Ethical Evaluation. Aldershot: Ashgate, 349-360
12 Pages Posted: 14 Dec 2015
Date Written: 1998
Abstract
Contemporary ethical discourse is faced with a remarkable ambiguity. On the one hand, we find the human subject thoroughly de-naturalized. Self-determination is regarded as the starting-point for moral decision-making, human nature is reduced to being free and reasonable, and the idea that nature might serve as a criterium for moral behaviour or as a standard for moral guidance seems to have lost all credibility. On the other hand, however, we are faced with the opposite effort as well, namely to naturalize the human being, considering him solely in biological terms and reducing him to one particular species among others, displaying a life-pattern that can be described in purely instinctual terms.
Keywords: bioethics, naturalness, reproductive technologies, post-menopausal IVF, self-determination
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