[Bioethics today: Heidegger’s questions]

Rev Med Chil. 2011 Oct;139(10):1378-83. Epub 2012 Jan 3.
[Article in Spanish]

Abstract

Bioethics was born not only as an aftermath of medical technological advance but also from underlying philosophical conceptions about man, that determine scientific research. Analyzing occidental ethics, Heidegger showed that animalism was the only human dimension considered and thereby the domain of measurable objectiveness. He postulated that the essence of human existence as being-in-the-world is ethical and revealed through an original consciousness. Unlike moral conscience, original conscience calls to authenticity, to hear his constitutive nihilism as a "Being-referred-to-death". The founding ground of bioethics may be to listen to this primary being-guilty prior to the derived guilts, e.g. faults, deficiencies and shortcomings of specific daily actions.

Publication types

  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Bioethical Issues*
  • Conscience*
  • Ethics, Medical*
  • Famous Persons
  • Germany
  • Humans
  • Philosophy*