The Value of Lives and Biomedical Ethics

Dear Colleagues, 

The recent pandemic is not only a social and economic but also an ethical challenge. Saving lives and the respect for human dignity are claims which seem to compete or even clash with the rights of freedom and equality. Should selected groups of patients be offered privileged access to scarce medical goods and healthcare? Are there any pro-arguments and criteria available recommending such a selection? Should vaccination be obligatory for professionals in medicine, in schools, and in the public sphere in general or would such an obligation be intolerably paternalistic and a violation of the law of privacy? Facing some of these problems, former ethical problems, e.g., organ donation, three-parent babies, surrogate parenting, and human embryonic stem-cell research seem to be marginalized, yet so far, none of these problems have been solved, and none of them is more urgent than the other. We kindly invite you to contribute to an issue of this journal. You are free to choose one of the problems mentioned or any other you prefer.

Prof. Dr. Otfried Höffe
Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Vossenkuhl
Guest Editors

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