The Contingent Nature of Life Bioethics and the Limits of Human Existence [Paperback]

This volume explores the different dimensions of how the contingency of life, and especially human life, is relevant for ethical discussions and the normative frameworks in bioethics. It explores the relevance of the notion contingency, needs and desires for moral argumentation and bioethics. The volume discusses those notions in a philosophical perspective. Additionally, the volume is a contribution to a deeper reflection on basic philosophical assumptions of bioethics.

The development of bioethics has presented us with an ever increasing number of very different discussions over the last four decades. Bioethicists were initially c- cerned about questions of reproduction, end of life, organ transplantation, and a broad range of moral problems raised by the forward march of the life sciences. Meanwhile these sciences grew to be a major in?uence in nearly all areas of our lives. Biotechnology has brought about considerable changes in agriculture, plant breeding, pharmacy, veterinary medicine and medicine in general. These scienti?c and technological changes in turn are having a profound in?uence on economy, law, politics and culture. The life sciences are now certain to change our world in important ways. Because of their potentially all-pervasive and highly diverse impact, bioethical discussions concerning the life sciences are no longer simply about ethical gui- lines or legal regulation of concrete technologies. Certainly, the on-going debates concerning rules and regulations are complicated  and becoming more so. Nev- theless, bioethics cannot be restricted to these topics  they cover but a fraction of the social and personal consequences of bio-technological change. The life sciences drive us to rethink long-time-honoured concepts of humanness, of personhood, of nature. Bioethics therefore needs to develop an understanding of the impact those changes have on the conceptualization of the ethical dimension of the life sciences.Introduction;Contló5