Empirische Totipotenz und metaphysische Gattungszugehoerigkeit bei der moralischen Beurteilung des vorgeburtlichen menschlichen Lebens

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Item Type:	Article
Title:	Empirische Totipotenz und metaphysische Gattungszugehoerigkeit bei der moralischen Beurteilung des vorgeburtlichen menschlichen Lebens
Creators Name:	Reich, J.
Abstract:	This paper develops the position that the empirical criterion of totipotency is unsuitable for the recognition of a being as belonging, in a metaphysical sense, to humankind. For totipotency can be deliberately manipulated and, in case of doubt, neither verified nor refuted. Beings which result from the manipulation or combination of human components are, in a metaphysical (normative) sense, not members of the human species (the >>human family<<). Somebody willingly bringing them to birth would produce a stigmatised, humanlike >>monster<<, not a human, even if its body were that of a human. This entails a categorical, metaphysically grounded ban on any kind of reproductive cloning of humans though not on therapeutic cloning and other experiments in cell biology involving humans. It does not follow from this position, however, that the latter are simply permitted.
Keywords:	Cloning, Embryo, Totipotency
Source:	Zeitschrift fuer medizinische Ethik
ISSN:	0944-7652
Volume:	50
Number:	2
Page Range:	115-130
Date:	1 January 2004

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