ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to clarify the emotional and biased use of moral language and suggests some distinctions which are useful in the discussion about the moral and legal status of the human embryo. Certainly the idea of human dignity has been developed in a rather special way in recent German bioethics. Whereas the innovative ideals of medical intervention have the advantage of a dynamic and promising perspective, the advocates of human dignity seem to preach refusal and prohibition because they pretend to possess some kind of metaphysical knowledge about the ‘essence’ of humankind. In spite of the clear rejection of any sort of ‘essentialism’ in ethical arguments Dieter Birnbacher defends some essentials of human dignity: minimal basic goods and minimal rights which represent a consensus in a world of pluralism. Birnbacher focuses on the question whether new reproductive technologies violate the human dignity of the embryo.