Verantwortung angesichts humanbiologischer Herausforderungen

Abstract

With the advancement of the new biotechnologies the problem of responsibility is becoming particularly acute. Instead of giving an own definition of responsibility, the author proposes to take it as a heuristic concept based on some Husserlian ideas developed in the Krisis. This ideas, which have some similarity with Jonas' principle of responsibility, are: first, responsibility as care for the vulnerable, second, responsibility in the context of a horizon of possibilities, and, third, responsibility for the own prerequisites as human being. By applying the hermeneutics of suspicion to some current issues, the author argues that the biotechnological revolution comes along with a shift of the cultures of recognition onto cultures of consumption. On the base of different arguments used in the biotechnological debates (arguments of status, of action relevance, of moral and right), three types of responsibility are revealed: the aporetic, the consecutive, and the quasi-hermeneutical responsibility, which enables a final controversy about their deficiency.