ABSTRACT
Since the end of the 1950s, physicians have been able to use heart-lung machines to keep people alive for whom previously there was no prospect of recovery. Shortly thereafter, it also became possible to remove their organs for transplantation purposes. For many physicians, however, this raised the question whether it could be morally right simply to take away organs from living, breathing people. Interesting is the way in which an answer to this moral conundrum was sought: a number of medical practitioners asked the pope to pass judgment. This is an instance of a very early bioethical discussion. Another example would be the debate on the conduct of doctors in concentration camps in the Third Reich, as held in the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial. Since then, developments in the life sciences have led to numerous discussions about cloning, embryo research, genetic diagnosis and selection, xenotransplantation and interference with the human brain – to highlight but a few themes. The contexts of these debates are no longer restricted to individual domains of medical practice, but have a far-ranging influence on the entirety of medicine and on everyday life. In addition, there is no universally accepted moral authority which could provide definitive answers. Bioethical discussions are partly held with considerable public participation and against a backdrop of extensive pluralism of moral convictions.
