ABSTRACT
The following is a perfect example of the widespread misunderstanding amid the struggle for clear communication. A few days before the beginning of my appointment as National Minister of Culture, i was asked by the Culture Editor of Tagesspiegel (a national left-leaning newspaper) to succinctly explain my position on the decision of the British parliament to allow therapeutic cloning before an embryo implants itself in the mother’s womb. i explained that the British model ought not to be adopted in Germany at this time, even though there was no fundamental or absolute ethical objection to the British decision. This position would hardly have appeared scandalous but for Tagesspiegel’s treatment of it with a page one article under the bright red headline, ‘Nida-Rümelin: Human cloning, why not?’ Such are the ignoble ways in which misunderstanding can affect our public discourse, particularly when strong political interests are at play.
