2 - 2002
Ethics in modern medicine
Editorial
On 30 January 2002 the German Bundestag voted, after an impassioned debate, to allow embryonic stem cells to be imported under strict conditions. A law for this purpose is in preparation. The public discussion of this subject was instigated by researchers in this field and in bio-medicine who found the limitations of the 1990 German law on protection of embryos to be behind the times. The new law prohibits the creation of embryonic stem cells for research purposes in Germany, as well as research on surplus embryos which are created during artificial insemination in a Petri dish. The importation of embryonic stem cells for research purposes will be strictly regulated. The majority of researchers see certain possibilities of being able to use the insights gained from stem cell research to treat or to prevent previously incurable diseases.
The churches have participated in this debate in no uncertain terms. Church governing bodies and leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, have shown a rare unanimity in their public statements as they spoke out in favour of comprehensive protection of human life. The decisive question in this connection is, When does human life actually begin?
According to the church, it begins at the moment of fusion of the egg and sperm cells, not just when the embryo is implanted in the womb. Consequently, research on embryos means taking human lives, and importation of embryonic stem cells might ultimately be complicity in murder. In this issue of Ecumenical Dialogue, this position is represented by Ursula Beykirch, Wolfgang Huber, Johannes Reiter and Johannes Friedrich. The position they defend had surprisingly many supporters in the German Bundestag, but was unable to win over a majority of the members to its cause.
A number of respected Protestant social ethicists and bio-ethicists, in this issue Hartmut Kre§ and Johannes Fischer, for whom human life is just as sacred, give comprehensible reasons for holding different views. Like the majority in the German Bundestag, they are in favour of research on embryos under strictly defined conditions.