•  203
    Two concepts of dignity for humans and non-human organisms in the context of genetic engineering
    with Philipp Balzer and Klaus Peter Rippe
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 13 (1): 7-27. 2000.
    The 1992 incorporation of an article by referendum in the SwissConstitution mandating that the federal government issue regulations onthe use of genetic material that take into account the dignity ofnonhuman organism raises philosophical questions about how we shouldunderstand what is meant by ``the dignity of nonhuman animals,'' andabout what sort of moral demands arise from recognizing this dignitywith respect to their genetic engineering. The first step in determiningwhat is meant is to clari…Read more
  •  106
    Value pluralism: Some problems (review)
    Journal of Value Inquiry 33 (1): 71-78. 1999.
  •  83
    Human Rights and Human Dignity: A Reply to Doris Schroeder (review)
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (1): 155-161. 2014.
    According to Doris Schroeder, the view that human rights derive from human dignity should be rejected. She thinks that this is the case for three different reasons: the first has to do with the fact that the dominant concept of dignity is based on religious beliefs which will do no justificatory work in a secular society; the second is that the dominant secular view of dignity, which is the Kantian view, does not provide us with a justification of human rights, i.e. rights all humans have; and t…Read more
  •  79
    The so-called resource curse raises moral issues. Who, if anyone, is morally responsible for it? This article argues that this question amounts to: who is blameworthy for the violations of people's property rights? The international oil companies are blameworthy for the violations of property rights only in the case of complicity, not in the normal purchase case. Yet the international community has to take action against massive violations of property rights. The article discusses different meas…Read more
  •  62
    Achtung vor Personen
    Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 61 (4). 2007.
    Es geht in diesem Aufsatz um die Frage, was es heißt, eine andere Person zu achten. Im Zentrum steht dabei die moralische Achtung, nicht die Achtung im Sinne der Wertschätzung einer anderen Person. Ein wohlfahrts- und ein autonomietheoretisches Verständnis moralischer Achtung werden dargestellt und zurückgewiesen. Es wird für ein Verständnis moralischer Achtung argumentiert, wonach eine Person genau dann geachtet wird, wenn ihr authentischer Wille ernst genommen wird. Die Achtung schulden wir da…Read more
  •  54
    Human Rights and Basic Needs
    with Marion Albers, Thomas Hoffmann, and Reinhardt Jörn
    In Ius Gentium, . pp. 109-120. 2014.
  •  54
    While the importance of Consent has been discussed widely over the last few decades, interest in its study has received renewed attention in recent years, particularly regarding medical treatment, clinical research and sexual acts. The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Consent is an outstanding reference source to this exciting subject and the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into five main parts: Gene…Read more
  •  49
    Dignity Only for Humans? On the Inherent Value of Non-Human Beings
    with Marcus Düwell, Jens Braarvig, Roger Brownsword, and Dietmar Mieth
    In Schaber, Peter (2014). Dignity Only for Humans? On the Inherent Value of Non-Human Beings. In: Düwell, Marcus; Braarvig, Jens; Brownsword, Roger; Mieth, Dietmar. The Cambridge Handbook of Human Dignity. Cambridge MA: Cambridge University Press, 546-550, . pp. 546-550. 2014.
  •  49
    Wieso moralische Achtung wichtig ist
    Analyse & Kritik 31 (2): 351-361. 2009.
    Bittner argues in his paper that the idea of a general duty to respect persons is of much less importance than some moral philosophers think. If respect plays a role in our lives it is mainly appriciation respect persons have to merit. Respecting persons as such is, Bittner thinks, not just irrelevant, but also incompatibel with personal relations. Against this it is argued that respect for persons should be seen as the basic moral duty we have towards persons. And in addition, it is argued, tha…Read more
  •  47
    Normative Handlungsgründe
    Analyse & Kritik 21 (1): 25-40. 1999.
    It is a widely held view in moral philosophy that reasons for action are based on desires. This view should be rejected. Reasons for action are never provided by desires. Desires provide us with motives, whereas reasons for action are based on valuable facts which obtain independently of our desires. The recognition of these reasons does not necessarily motivate us. Motives depend on desires, for instance the motive for moral actions on the desire to do the morally right thing
  •  43
    The Volenti Maxim
    The Journal of Ethics 24 (1): 79-89. 2020.
    This paper discusses the volenti non fit injuria maxim. The volenti maxim states that a person is not wronged by that to which she consents, provided her consent is valid. I will argue, however, that the volenti maxim does not apply to all instances of valid consent. In some cases the consenter is wronged even if his consent is valid. Valid consent can only release others from consent-sensitive duties, not from consent-insensitive duties. If the consentee flouts a consent-insensitive duty the co…Read more
  •  42
    Is dignity a useless concept in medical ethics?
    Ethik in der Medizin 24 (4): 297-306. 2012.
    ZusammenfassungEs wurde für die These argumentiert, dass der Begriff der Würde in der Medizinethik nutzlos sei und in den Fällen, in denen er verständlich verwendet wird, nichts anderes meint als den Respekt vor der Autonomie von Personen. In diesem Aufsatz soll gezeigt werden, dass diese These falsch ist. Es wird ein Begriff von Würde vorgestellt, der sich nicht auf den Begriff des Respekts vor der Autonomie von Personen reduzieren lässt. Anhand der Diskussion um ein Sterben in Würde soll auch …Read more
  •  40
    Human dignity, self-respect, and dependency
    with P. Kaufmann, H. Kuch, C. Neuhaeuser, and E. Webster
    In Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy, . pp. 151-158. 2011.
    The paper deals with the question of whether poverty as such violates the dignity of persons. It is argued that it does. This is, it is argued, not due to a lack of basic goods, nor to the fact that poverty prevents persons from enjoying the rights they have, particularly the right to bodily integrity. Poverty does violate dignity, so it is argued, insofar as poor people are dependent on others in a degrading way.
  •  40
    In Defense of the Lenient View
    Philosophia 49 (4): 1695-1702. 2021.
    This paper deals with the wrongness of having sex with someone without her valid consent. There are good reasons to think that deception about deal-breakers invalidate consent to sex and that acting without valid consent wrongs the consenter. Tom Dougherty argues that it is always seriously wrong to deceive another person into sex by deceiving her. We should on his view therefore reject the view that doing so is in certain cases only a minor wrong. It will be argued here that we should accept th…Read more
  •  39
    How permissive consent works
    Ratio 33 (2): 117-124. 2020.
    Consent that is voluntary, informed and given by a competent person sometimes transforms a wrong into a right act. How does consent that meets these requirements change the moral property of an act, namely that of being a wronging of a person? This is the question this paper will deal with. Some authors argue that valid consent changes the moral property of an act by changing the reasons which speak against the act. This account of the normative force of consent will be critically examined and r…Read more
  •  36
    Selbstbestimmter Wille und das Recht auf assistierten Suizid
    Ethik in der Medizin 29 (2): 97-107. 2017.
    ZusammenfassungIm Blick auf ein Recht auf assistierten Suizid ist nicht nur umstritten, ob es ein solches Recht gibt, es ist auch umstritten, worauf ein solches Recht denn ein Recht wäre. Der vorliegende Artikel versucht deutlich zu machen, dass das, worum es in dieser Diskussion um den selbstbestimmten Suizid geht, die Frage ist, was Entscheidungen von Menschen achtungswürdig macht. Der Artikel plädiert für eine Idee von Achtungswürdigkeit, für welche die selbstbestimmte Ausübung von Rechten üb…Read more
  •  35
    Demanding something
    Grazer Philosophische Studien 90 (1): 63-77. 2014.
  •  34
    Sind alle Werte vergleichbar?
    Analyse & Kritik 16 (2): 153-165. 1994.
    Are the values of different options and goods, as cost-benefit analysis assumes, commensurable? Not always. The incommensurability of certain options is based on the fact that preferences are sometimes not rankable, even if the agent is fully informed about the options in question. In addition, even if all values were commensurable they could not be compared in monetary terms. If this is the case, cost-benefit analysis should not be seen as a decision procedure
  •  32
    The Reason-Giving Force of Requests
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 24 (2): 431-442. 2021.
    How do we change the normative landscape by making requests? It will be argued that by making requests we create reasons for action if and only if certain conditions are met. We are able to create reasons if and only if doing so is valuable for the requester, and if they respect the requestee. Respectful requests have a normative force – it will be argued – because it is of instrumental value to us that we all have the normative power of creating reasons by making requests. The normative power h…Read more
  •  28
    Was bedeutet es, die Autonomie anderer zu respektieren?
    Archiv Für Rechts- Und Sozialphilosphie 102 (2): 174-185. 2016.
    To respect the autonomous choices of persons is an important moral principle. There is, however, little agreement about its nature and its normative importance. This is due to the fact that the concept of autonomy as well as the moral relevance of autonomy are contested. It is argued in this paper that the debate about autonomy is at its core a debate about the reasons for respecting decisions. Decisions of persons are to be respected as their decisions, and they have to be respected as determin…Read more
  •  28
    Democracy and Environmental Decision-Making
    with Klaus Peter Rippe
    Environmental Values 8 (1): 75-88. 1999.
    It has been argued that environmental decision-making can be improved be introducing citizen panels. The authors argue that citizen panels and other models of citizen participation should only be used as a consulting forum in exceptional cases at the local level, not as a real decision-making procedure. But many problems in the field of environmental policy need nonlocal, at least regional or national, regulation due to the fact that they are of national impor-tance. The authors argue that there…Read more
  •  24
    Human dignity and the right to assisted suicide
    with Baumann Holger
    In Sebastian Muders (ed.), Human Dignity and Assisted Death, Oup Usa. pp. 218-229. 2017.
    If a person competently requests another person to assist her in dying, she thereby exercises her normative power to make the act permissible that belongs to her rights over her own body. Denying a person this normative power means, on the view developed in this chapter, to disrespect her human dignity. We thus argue against views that regard terminating one’s own life (by the help of others) as morally impermissible for reasons of human dignity. At the same time, however, we do not think that e…Read more