Heiner Fangerau

In a critical review of late twentieth-century gene-culture co-evolutionary models labelled as ‘global phylogeny’, the authors present evidence for the long legacy of co-evolutionary theories in European-based thinking, highlighting that (1) ideas of social and cultural evolution preceded the idea of biological evolution, (2) linguistics played a dominant role in the formation of a unified theory of human co-evolution, and (3) that co-evolutionary thinking was only possible due to perpetuated and renewed transdisciplinary reticulations between scholars of different disciplines—especially within the integrative framework of the ‘humanid’ and the ‘hominid’ branches of anthropology.

Objectives: In this study the author aimed to provide information for researchers to help them with the selection of suitable databases for finding medical ethics literature. The quantity of medical ethical literature that is indexed in different existing electronic bibliographies was ascertained. Method: Using the international journal index Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, journals on medical ethics were identified. The electronic bibliographies indexing these journals were analysed. In an additional analysis documentalists indexing bioethical literature were asked to name European journals on medical ethics. The bibliographies indexing these journals were examined. Results: Of 290 journals on medical ethics 173 were indexed in at least one bibliography. Current Contents showed the highest coverage with 66 (22.8%) journals indexed followed by MEDLINE (22.1%). By a combined search in the top ten bibliographies with the highest coverage, a maximum coverage of 45.2% of all journals could be reached. All the bibliographies showed a tendency to index more North American than European literature. This result was verified by the supplementary analysis of a sample of continental European journals. Here EMBASE covered the highest number of journals (20.6%) followed by the Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies (19.2%). Conclusion: A medical ethics literature search has to be carried out in several databases in order to reach an adequate collection of literature. The databases one wishes to combine should be carefully chosen. There seems to be a regional bias in the most popular databases, favouring North American periodicals compared with European literature on medical ethics.

The pyrano‐phenazine derivatives 6 were synthesized by an efficient procedure using the reaction between benzo[a]phenacin‐5‐ols with the condensation product of an aldehyde with Meldrum's acid in the presence of a catalytic amount of Et3N at ambient temperature. The procedure is very simple, and products could be separated from the reaction media by simple filtration. High functional‐group tolerance both in the benzo[a]phenazin‐5‐ol and aldehyde moieties, facile reaction procedure, medium‐to‐high yields, and simple separation of the products from the reaction media are the advantages of this route.

The German–American physiologist Jacques Loeb (1859–1924) and the Polish embryologist Emil Godlewski, jr. (1875–1944) contributed many valuable works to the body of developmental biology. Jacques Loeb was world famous at the beginning of the twentieth century for his development and demonstration of artificial parthenogenesis in 1899 and his experiments on regeneration. He served as a role model for the younger Polish experimenter Emil Godlewski, who began his career as a researcher like Loeb at the Zoological Station in Naples. Following Godlewski’s first visit to Naples in 1901 a close relationship between the two scientists developed. Until Loeb’s death in 1924 the two exchanged ideas via correspondence that was only interrupted during the First World War. The aim of the paper is to examine the transatlantic transfer of knowledge in the field of biological experimentation that was fostered by these two protagonists. Using a modification of Bruno Latour’s model of the ‘Circulatory System of Science’ as a heuristic tool, different mechanisms of scientific exchange are displayed. With the help of Loeb’s and Godlewski’s correspondence the role of scientific communities, methods, allies, the public and institutions in the process of knowledge transfer are analysed. Preconditions for success and failure in transferring science are examined.

Das Altern ist nicht nur eine biologische, sondern auch eine kulturelle Tatsache. Als Objekt der Verhandlungen zwischen Wissensdiskursen erscheint Alter als ein ebenso heterogenes wie problematisches Phanomen, das von Werturteilen und Weltanschauungen bestimmt wird. Des Weiteren sind Alter und Medizin in der offentlichen Meinung moderner Gesellschaften eng miteinander verbunden. Das interdisziplinare Forschungsprojekt "Kulturelle Variationen und Reprasentationen des Alters" geht von einem erweiterten, die geistes-, sozial- und medizinwissenschaftlichen Diskurse integrierenden Konzept von Alterskulturen und Potentialen des Alters aus. Dies bedeutet, Alter als Gegenstand des Wissens und als Konzept zu begreifen. Alterskonzepte, das heisst Vorstellungen, Wertungen und, Bilder des Alters, sind Deutungsmuster fur elementare Bedurfnisse an der Schnittstelle von individuellem und kollektivem Leben. Mit Beitragen von David Blane und Gopalakrishnan Netuveli, Johannes Siegrist und Morten Wahrendorf, Peter Rusterholz, Anouk Janssen, Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen, Stefanie Knoll, Jean-Claude Schmitt, Gerd Gockenjan, Giovanna Pinna, Hans-Georg Pott, Monika Gomille, Miriam Seidler, Pat Thane, Simone Moses, Heiner Fangerau und Jorg Vogele, Anja Schonlau, Thomas Kupper"

Im diachronen Vergleich kann über die Epochen hinweg eine Verschiebung der Gewichtung einzelner Aspekte von Optimierung, Selbstverbesserung oder der Idee eines ‚guten Lebens‘ identifiziert werden. Die analytischen Überlegungen zum Neuro- Enhancement machen deutlich, dass aufklärerische Ideale heute noch wirkmächtig bleiben. Vor allem zum Neuro-Enhancement analoge Leitmotive lassen sich - so die These des Beitrags - in den philanthropischen Theorien der Spätaufklärung finden. Und auch die dort angelegten Widersprüche und Ambivalenzen wirken in die heutigen Diskurse um das Neuro-Enhancement. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es, den Versuch zu unternehmen, die historischen Ideale eines ‚perfekten Menschen‘ zur heutigen Enhancement-Situation anschlussfähig zu machen.

ZusammenfassungDie Schweigepflicht, einer der Grundpfeiler medizinischer Ethik, spielt in der aktuellen Diskussion um die Verbesserung des Kinderschutzes eine zentrale Rolle. Unklare und mehrdeutige gesetzliche Regelungen und Handlungsanweisungen, wie mit Anhaltspunkten für eine Kindeswohlgefährdung umzugehen ist, wenn die Sorgeberechtigten eine weitergehende Hilfe ablehnen, werden als Hindernis für einen wirksamen Kinderschutz betrachtet. Aus der schwer durchschaubaren Rechtslage resultieren für Angehörige der Gesundheitsberufe regelmäßig Handlungsunsicherheiten, die im Einzelfall notwendige Hilfe verzögern oder gar verhindern könnten. Neue Gesetze auf Länderebene haben deshalb im Sinne eines verbesserten Kinderschutzes eine Erhöhung der Rechtssicherheit sowie eine Förderung der Vernetzung der beteiligten Akteure zum Ziel. Wenn auch einigen der Gesetze ein gewisses Klarstellungspotenzial zugebilligt werden kann, ist doch im Augenblick ihr Beitrag zu mehr Rechtssicherheit im Umgang mit Kinderschutzfällen noch als sehr eingeschränkt zu betrachten. Ein Bundesgesetz, welches die Intention hatte, die heterogenen Landesnormen durch eine bundeseinheitliche Regelung zu ersetzen, ist wenigstens in der letzten Legislaturperiode gescheitert.

The German-born American scientist Jacques Loeb (1859–1924) was one of the most important promoters of experimental biology around 1900. He was best known for his physico-chemical explanations of psychological processes and his biotechnological approach to artificial parthenogenesis. At the start of the First World War, Loeb was deeply troubled by the deterioration of the international scientific community and the growing alienation of his German and American colleagues. The aim of this paper is to examine Jacques Loeb's activities aimed at advancing scientific internationalism before, during, and after the war. Loeb, for example, tried to negotiate the publication of German authors in American journals during the war, at a time when this was categorically rejected by publishers. Immediately after the war, he tried to create a specific system aimed at disseminating scientific literature and funding selected European colleagues, in order to overcome what he considered reactionary and hegemonic forces within German scientific institutions. His correspondence with eminent scientists from all over the world (amongst them Albert Einstein, Richard Goldschmidt, Otto Meyerhof, Otto Warburg, Paul Ehrlich, Wolfgang Ostwald, Wilhelm Roux, and Ross Harrison) will serve as a source for the analysis. Special emphasis will be placed on the question how Jacques Loeb integrated epistemology, his particular world view, and his social commitment into the workings of his own life and how he tried to extend his scientific goal of controlling biological systems to the sphere of international science