TEORIE VĚDY 3/2005

 

 

 

ABSTRACT

 

 

 

 

 

Adolf Filáček,  Václav Liška:

Foreword                                                                                          7

Wendy Drozenová,  Monika Bartíková:

Introduction                                                                                      9

Gerhard Zecha:

Suggestions  to institutionalize  ethics  in  academia                     19

Yusef Waghid:

Respect,  Dialogue  and  Reconciliation  in  South  Africa            33

Jana Šafránková:

Ethics,  Sustainability  and  Business                                            47

Jiří Kučírek:

Luhmann´s  farewell  to  old  Europe –

the  vision  of “the  society  void  of  morals”                                  57

Emilio Mordini, Roseline Ricco:

The  Institutionalisation  of  Ethics  in  Policy  Making  in  Europe:

A  Preliminary  Survey                                                                   67

Alexander Bögner  and  Wolfgang Menz:

The  politics  of  knowledge  and  values:

Ethics  expertise  in  the  stem  cell  discourse                                113

Heinrich Ganthaler:

Do  Human  Beings  Have  a  Right  to  Life  Before  Birth?                  127
Margaret Monahan Hogan:

Human  Embryonic  Stem  Cells

The  Intersection  of  Science,  Medicine  and  Ethics                    135

 

Autor Index                                                                                     147

Suggestions to institutionalize ethics in academia

 

Gerhard Zecha

Abstract

The ethical dimension of the academic world is not always given its due attention nowadays. How, then, can we raise the ethical awareness in academia? In a first section of this contribution, it is argued that ethics is linked to moral responsibility which implies not only being accountable of an agent for certain tasks but also a response to the call or norms of some kind of authority, of one’s conscience in the end. In the following sections, some ways to make ethics present in teaching, doing research and administration are described and partly illustrated.

 

 

Respect, Dialogue and Reconciliation in South Africa

 

Yusef Waghid

Abstract

Legislated apartheid rule which dominated South African society for more than 50 years left the country with deep-rooted scars and inequalities in housing, health care, education, and employment sectors which would take some time to be redressed. Although the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings which brought both the perpetrators of heinous apartheid crimes face to face with those who suffered hardships, abuse, torture and other grave forms of human indignation, succeeded to provide opportunities for the South African nation to heal some of the scars left behind, without education it would not succeed to achieve some of its desired and noble aims. In this essay, I argue that reconciliation cannot be some lip service which people affirm, but rather has to be part of a wider process of education whereby people should be initiated into acts of forgiveness. And, one way of doing so is to cultivate a sense of ‘respect for persons’ in university classrooms, particularly because students are more favourably situated to engage in critical dialogues about what they learn. Put differently, learning to respect oneself and others ought to be a precondition for critical dialogues. Only then, would the dialogues be sustained and the potential for forgiveness become highly possible.

 

 

Ethics,  Sustainability  and  Business

 

Jana Šafránková

Abstract

Ethical principles in business are at present a very actual issue, above all in connexion with abiding and not-abiding by the ethical norms. Business ethics are connected with the problem of the sustainable development of the human civilisation.  This treatise  spares a thought for connexion among ethics, ethical principles and the problem of sustainability in business and enterprises.

 

 

 

Luhmann´s  farewell  to  old  Europe – the  vision  of

“the  society  void  of  morals”

 

Jiří Kučírek

Abstract

The article consideres Luhmann´s koncept of  “the society void of morals“ which is a consequence of the acceptance of “auto-poietic“ systems (“social ontology“). The opposite alternative to it is the point of view of the “biological ontology“ of H.R.Maturana, resulting from the concept of  human auto-poietic system. This point of view makes possible to keep certain normativity of éthos even in science and ethics.

 

 

The  Institutionalisation  of  Ethics

 in  Policy  Making  in  Europe:  A  Preliminary  Survey
 
Emilio Mordini, Roseline Ricco

Abstract

This paper presents results of the first stage of the INES Project. INES is a research project funded by the European Commission in the scope of the Action Plan on Science and Society of the Framework Programme 6th. The report informs about the results of an international survey that was made and fulfilled by partners of the project. The results show different levels of the institutionalisation and various approaches to the institutionalisation of ethics in science policy according to the country. Today’s ethics and public discourse  are challenged by a unique shift from collective control and hierarchical decision making to individual control and decision making that will mark the technological revolution. The very natures of new technologies make regulating and controlling them particularly challenging. Traditional “top-down” methods of governance of ethical and social issues – chiefly based on standard-setting ethical bodies – will have little space. New mechanisms for incorporating ethics in policy making are needed, and they must emerge quickly, and be flexible, and have broad buy-in.

 

 

The politics of knowledge and values:

Ethics expertise in the stem cell discourse

 

Alexander Bogner and Wolfgang Menz

Abstract

The complexity of, and the controversies around, biomedical research and the application of its results entail new forms of policy advice: multidisciplinary ethics committees of mostly academic experts replace traditional interest representation. In this paper we argue that this trend reflects the 'ethicising' of technology conflicts featuring a specific structure. Furthermore, with the establishment of ethics committees, bioethical expertise turns into a product that gets negotiated between representatives of different disciplines and worldviews. In the communicative process of producing bioethical expertise, positions get consolidated in a pragmatic way; they are negotiated rather than freely deliberated. Finally, an analysis of possible functions of ethics expertise for political decision making shows that non-unanimous commission recommendations do not necessarily lead to a lack of legitimisation for political decision making. Rather than reducing political autonomy and rendering it invisible behind expert opinion, such recommendations provide opportunities to re-identify politics as an autonomous field of action with its own logic.

 

 

Do Human Beings Have a Right to Life Before Birth?

 

Heinrich Ganthaler

Abstract

Usually, there is no doubt that human beings have an inviolable right to life after birth. Much more controversial is the answer to the question, whether human beings have a right to life before birth. According to the Doctrine of the Sanctity of Life, mainly defended by the Catholic Church, human beings have an inviolable right to life from the moment of conception. According to this doctrine any intentional destruction of a human embryo or fetus – be it for the purpose of research or for medical reasons – is ethically strictly forbidden. According to a more liberal view there are – in contrary to the Doctrine of the Sanctity of Life – no good reasons to ascribe a right to life already to the early embryo. In this paper the Doctrine of the Sanctity of Life is compared with the position of an interest-based ethics, according to which a human beings right to life is based on the ability to have an actual interest in his own life. It is argued in favor of an interest-based ethics. At the same time some serious problems connected with an interest-based ethics are discussed.

 

 

Human Embryonic Stem Cells

The Intersection of Science, Medicine and Ethics

 
Margaret Monahan Hogan

Abstract

In general technology outpaces ethics, that is, technology figures out how to do some things before it asks the question “ought this to be done” and medicine suspects that a sick person might benefit from some intervention and proceeds without asking the question “ought this therapeutic modality be undertaken.” Science is propelled by the energy of the research imperative and medicine is driven by the compassion of the therapeutic imperative. The inherent attraction of these goods – the advance of knowledge and the possibility of cure or the amelioration of disease – bestow on medicine and science a kind of immediacy – and with it the permission to go full throttle. In addition, science and medicine each claim that the discipline or practice is value free and each claims to pursue its ends with purity of purpose. The catalogue of overriding basic human rights by the research imperative and the medical imperative has many entries from the USA that span from the forty year Tuskegee studies to the human radiation experiments. The moral questions such as: “is this a contribution to real human flourishing,” “are the means to accomplish the desired end good,” or “is the end itself a real human good” do not enter consciousness at the same time and with the same exigency as the research imperative and the cure imperative. This paper provides one example of a lesson inserted into the undergraduate science curriculum to introduce students to the ethical issues surrounding the use of stem cells.