•  281
    Naturerkenntnis Und Natursein (edited book)
    Suhrkamp. 1998.
    Indem dieser Band sich auf das Verhältnis von Naturerkennen und Natursein konzentriert, thematisiert er einen wesentlichen Ausschnitt aus dem weiten Spektrum von Böhmes philosophischer Arbeit. Um die Naturthematik möglichst breit zu entfalten und für Querverbindungen offenzuhalten, ist der vorliegende Band in drei Abschnitte gegliedert. Im ersten Abschnitt stehen Charakter und Reichweite der wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis von Natur im Mittelpunkt. Der zweite Teil des Bandes stellt alternative Per…Read more
  •  126
    The Well- and Unwell-Being of a Child
    Topoi 32 (2): 197-205. 2013.
    The concept of the ‘well-being of the child’ (like the ‘child’s welfare’ and ‘best interests of the child’) has remained underdetermined in legal and ethical texts on the needs and rights of children. As a hypothetical construct that draws attention to the child’s long-term welfare, the well-being of the child is a broader concept than autonomy and happiness. This paper clarifies some conceptual issues of the well-being of the child from a philosophical point of view. The main question is how we…Read more
  •  61
    How to Relate the Empirical to the Normative
    with Rouven Porz and Jackie Leach Scully
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 21 (4): 436-447. 2012.
  •  60
    Donating Embryos to Stem Cell Research: The “Problem” of Gratitude
    with Jackie Leach Scully, Erica Haimes, Anika Mitzkat, and Rouven Porz
    Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 9 (1): 19-28. 2012.
    This paper is based on linked qualitative studies of the donation of human embryos to stem cell research carried out in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and China. All three studies used semi-structured interview protocols to allow an in-depth examination of donors’ and non-donors’ rationales for their donation decisions, with the aim of gaining information on contextual and other factors that play a role in donor decisions and identifying how these relate to factors that are more usually includ…Read more
  •  57
    There is no consensus about the ethical ideal of genetic counselling and decision making. This paper reviews and discusses some of the most prominent ethical arguments that have been brought forward against the non-directiveness principle (NDP), which has been the ethical gold standard for a long time. These arguments can be classed in four categories: (i) NDP can be against the best interests of the individuals concerned; (ii) NDP has ideological elements that do not adequately represent the co…Read more
  •  56
    Organised Assistance to Suicide in England?
    with Lynn Hagger
    Health Care Analysis 21 (2): 85-104. 2013.
    Guidelines provided by the Director of Public Prosecutions suggest that anyone assisting another to commit suicide in England and Wales, or elsewhere, will not be prosecuted provided there are no self-seeking motives and no active encouragement. This reflects the position in Switzerland. There, however, no difference is made between assistance and inducement. In addition, the Swiss approach makes it possible to establish organisations to assist the suicides of both their citizens and foreign vis…Read more
  •  43
    Frankensteinian Knowledge?
    The Monist 79 (2): 264-279. 1996.
    Scientific knowledge is experimental knowledge. Such knowledge can be seen as "forbidden," either because the experiments leading to that knowledge are seen as immoral, or because interventions made possible by that knowledge could be morally offensive. There is currently an interesting case in the realm of genetic engineering, in which moral condemnations have been forthcoming but have not been unanimous. Here I present an analysis of this heterogeneity of moral assessment in the hope that this…Read more
  •  34
    „Selektive“ Fortpflanzung durch pränatale Diagnostik?
    Ethik in der Medizin 34 (1): 7-26. 2021.
    Die breite Einführung nicht-invasiver pränataler Tests sowie die Ausweitung der Testziele über Trisomien hinaus machen es notwendig, Sinn und Ziel der pränatalen Diagnostik als emergente soziale Praxis grundsätzlich zu diskutieren. Wenn, wie angenommen wird, PND nicht zu eugenischen Zwecken, sondern zur Stärkung der Autonomie dienen soll, muss gefragt werden, welche Bedeutung die Entscheidungen haben, ein bestimmtes zukünftiges Kind zu gebären. Stephen Wilkinson hat vorgeschlagen, PND als eine F…Read more
  •  32
    ABSTRACT The part played by time in ethics is often taken for granted, yet time is essential to moral decision making. This paper looks at time in ethical decisions about having a genetic test. We use a patient‐centred approach, combining empirical research methods with normative ethical analysis to investigate the patients' experience of time in (i) prenatal testing of a foetus for a genetic condition, (ii) predictive or diagnostic testing for breast and colon cancer, or (iii) testing for Hunti…Read more
  •  31
    Creating donors: The 2005 swiss law on donation of 'spare' embryos to hESC research (review)
    Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 3 (1-2): 81-93. 2006.
    In November 2004, the Swiss population voted to accept a law on research using human embryonic stem cells. In this paper, we use Switzerland as a case study of the shaping of the ostensibly ethical debate on the use of embryos in embryonic stem cell research by legal, political and social constraints. We describe how the national and international context affected the content and wording of the law. We discuss the consequences of the revised law's separation of stem cell research from other form…Read more
  •  30
    The social interface between reproductive medicine and embryonic stem cell research has been investigated in a pilot study at a large IVF clinic in central China. Methods included observation, interviews with hospital personnel, and five in-depth qualitative interviews with women who underwent IVF and who were asked for their consent to the donation of embryos for use in medical (in fact human embryonic stem cell) research. This paper reports, and discusses from an ethical perspective, the resul…Read more
  •  28
    Genes in labs - concepts of development and the standard environment
    Philosophia Naturalis 43 (1): 49-73. 2006.
    The relationship of genes, genomes, the organism and the environment where development takes place can be explained in two dramatically different ways. The two views are characterized as ,,program theory' and ,,systemic theory' of DNA. The first assumes that genetic information is encoded in DNA and preexists development. Environmental influences are treated as conditions for adequate gene expression, sometimes as selective conditions for different developmental pathways. The second assumes that…Read more
  •  27
    'Ambivalence' at the end of life: How to understand patients' wishes ethically
    with K. Ohnsorge, H. R. G. Keller, and G. A. Widdershoven
    Nursing Ethics 19 (5): 629-641. 2012.
    Health-care professionals in end-of-life care are frequently confronted with patients who seem to be ‘ambivalent’ about treatment decisions, especially if they express a wish to die. This article investigates this phenomenon by analysing two case stories based on narrative interviews with two patients and their caregivers. First, we argue that a respectful approach to patients requires acknowledging that coexistence of opposing wishes can be part of authentic, multi-layered experiences and moral…Read more
  •  27
    Die allogene Transplantation von Blutstammzellen aus dem Körper von Kindern, die der Spende nicht selbst zustimmen können, in den Körper eines kranken Geschwisterkindes wirft schwierige ethische Fragen auf. Wie kann ein risikobehafteter, fremdnütziger medizinischer Eingriff ethisch gerechtfertigt werden? In dieser Arbeit werden Argumente kritisch untersucht, nach denen das Spenderkind eine Pflicht habe, bei der Transplantation mitzumachen. Die Idee der Pflicht ist nachvollziehbar aus der Perspek…Read more
  •  26
    Definition of the problemFrom an ethical point of view we analyse the ruling of the German Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G‑BA) of September 2019 to revise the guidelines about the coverage of noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPT) by mandatory health insurance, in order to include them under specified conditions. The decision contains four essential elements: a definition of the aim of NIPT testing (to avoid invasive testing), a criterion of access (test must be “necessary” fo…Read more
  •  24
    ZusammenfassungZumindest bei bestimmten Gruppen kann die Aneuploidietestung im Rahmen der PID für die Schwangerschaft medizinisch sinnvoll sein. Die gegenwärtige Rechtslage in Deutschland scheint die PID auf eine Chromosomenfehlverteilung im Embryo nicht auszuschließen; diese Testung muss aber im Einzelfall begründet und von der Frau bei einer PID-Ethikkommission beantragt werden. Der Artikel untersucht die Frage aus ethischer und rechtlicher Sicht, ob prinzipielle Gründe dagegen stehen, dass di…Read more
  •  21
    Altered Nuclear Transfer, Genom-Metaphysik und das Argument der Potentialität
    Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft Und Ethik 11 (1): 351-374. 2006.
  •  21
    Ethical Considerations in the Manufacture, Sale, and Distribution of Genome Editing Technologies
    with Jeremy Sugarman, Supriya Shivakumar, Martha Rook, Jeanne F. Loring, Jochen Taupitz, Jutta Reinhard-Rupp, and Steven Hildemann
    American Journal of Bioethics 18 (8): 3-6. 2018.
  •  20
    Response
    Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 7 (1): 135-136. 2010.
  •  20
    Contextual Bioethics
    Perspektiven der Philosophie 25 315-338. 1999.
  •  19
    Agency at Life’s End
    American Journal of Bioethics 19 (12): 40-41. 2019.
    Volume 19, Issue 12, December 2019, Page 40-41.
  •  19
    Short literature notices
    with Chris Gastmans, Gert Olthuis, Madeleine Roovers, Norbert Steinkamp, and Jeantine E. Lunshof
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 8 (2): 261-264. 2005.
  •  16
    Patients at the end of their life who express a wish to die sometimes explain their wish as the desire not to be a burden to others. This feeling needs to be investigated as an emotion with an intrinsically dialogical structure. Using a phenomenological approach, two key meanings of the feeling of being a burden to others as a reason for a wish to die are identified. First, it is an existential suffering insofar as it contains the perception of a plight so desperate that it can only be relieved …Read more
  •  15
    Comparing Germany and Israel regarding debates on policy-making at the beginning of life: PGD, NIPT and their paths of routinization
    with Aviad E. Raz, Tamar Nov-Klaiman, Yael Hashiloni-Dolev, Hannes Foth, and Christina Schües
    Ethik in der Medizin 34 (1): 65-80. 2021.
    The routinization of prenatal diagnosis is the source of bioethical and policy debates regarding choice, autonomy, access, and protection. To understand these debates in the context of cultural diversity and moral pluralism, we compare Israel and Germany, focusing on two recent repro-genetic “hot spots” of such policy-making at the beginning of life: pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and non-invasive prenatal genetic testing, two cutting-edge repro-genetic technologies that are regulated and vi…Read more