ABSTRACT
Medical technology has, at least in some circumstances, fundamentally changed the way human beings come into life and end their lives. This chapter dealt with the beginning of human life. Researchers have recently presented methods through which in vitro embryos may be harvested for stem cells without destroying them in the process. The standard reference in embryo ethics regarding worries about instrumentalization is not Heidegger's ontological critique of modern technology but Kant's moral philosophy. Iris Marion Young argues that the experiences of pregnancy, including quickening, are not alienating in themselves. In his book The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age, Hans Jonas offers the example of the newborn, 'whose mere breathing uncontradictably addresses an ought to the world around, namely, to take care of him'. Abortion ethics includes the questions of under what circumstances and within what time limits it is acceptable to end the life of an embryo/foetus in the womb.
