Volume 44, Issue 1

The scarcity of goods is one of the central problems medical ethics has to deal with. Scarcity results from the connection of a naturallack of goods and human pleonexia, i.e. the desire always to wish for more. The old and the new answer on the problern of pleonexia is temperance which in the health care system could prove itself by considerately dealing with a permanently growing measure of different medical treatments. But since individual temperance can not be generally guaranteed, the question of justice, of a just organization of the Health Care System remains to be answered. A fair weighing of goods, to give a concrete example, is necessary in order to clarify which significance the health care system ought to have in politics, compared with other political topics, for example education. Moreover it is necessary to know for which of the possible medical treatments there exists a just claim for everybody. For this reason a model of health care insurance with different stages is considered.

This paper deals with problems economists face in formulating a pure economic theory of justice. It is shown that constitutional economics as an approach giving opportunity to endogenize equity in an economic calculus, is only of limited use. It is criticized furthermore that economists neglect the basic problern of universalistic versus local justice. They have not contributed much to the problems of (equitable) implementation and enforcement of norms of justice either. Yet some applications cover the full range of social relations (altruistic preferences, faimess of contracts, political fairness, intergenerational equity), and Iead to an interdisciplinary design of research where the findings of other disciplines are integrated in economic research and methodological advantages of economic theory contribute to noneconomic disciplines

About forty years ago- in 1959- the »Heidelberger Thesen« were published. In (West) German Protestantism, this document was soon accepted as a basis for peace ethics during the Cold War. After the East-West conflict came to an end, nuclear weapons at first appeared irrelevant. But ultimately this did not prove to be the case. One could therefore assume that the Heidelberg compromise formulae would still be valid. The essay disputes this view, referring to the original document's lack of clarity and also to the current political and strategic situation

The problematic nature of totalitarian monetary system- in theological terms, the problems which arise when the monetary system is seen as an alternative to God - is weil known. But the presupposition that money is universally dominant has itself tobe reviewed. This article discusses the importance of the monetary system in shaping people's attitude to money, in the functional systems of modern societies, and in the corporate world. lt demonstrates that Christian faith can impose a necessary restriction to the dominance of the monetary system

The rapid change of values in the latter half of the 2Qth century required new ethical answers and considerations in all areas of society (family, corporate world, medicine, biotechnology, etc.). The need for a new »Christian Ethics« in Germany permeated all of society after the collapse of Nazi-ideology and valuesystems. The article shows how Protestant ethics in and around Germany have failed to adress this need. There are two main reasons for the inadequate response. First, the mainstream of Protestant ethics widely refused to offer specifically »Christian« contributions to the moral reconstruction of society, based on a fear that core of Christianity would yet again be utilized as a lable of legitimacy. Secondly, theological ethics were focused on the discourse of principle to an extent that the laboraus work of application was left more or less undone. Protestant ethics did not succeed in making ethical commitments and considerations relevant for specific questions and needs for example in the area of medicine and biotechnological research or in the realm of corporate action and interaction. The lack of applicability and immediate relevance calls for a discourse and collaboration that integrates the ethical disciplines with those members and institutions in society that are confronted with and confronting the ethical challenge

Social Ethics raised growing interest within the last fife decades ofthe 20th century. Mainly conceived as social criticism and theory of social change as well, this discipline became a major factor particularly in those church circles where ways were sought to express actively and effectively what was called »Christian social responsibility«. In the course of historic developments during recent years, however, it has become questionable of wether or not this concept of Social Ethics still meets what is needed to grant orientation in how to cope with problems that are caused by these developments in society. It therefore seems legitimate to evaluate the given concept of Social Ethics in order to find out to what extend its alteration is indicated. The essay proposes to seek an answer in the direction of conceiving Social Ethics as a shelter of different ethical approaches to scrutinise concrete developments in politics, economy and industry and their impacts on the conditions of living in society

On the occasion of the 1 001h birthday of Heinz-Dietrich Wendland, it's timetoset one of the key thoughts of his social ethics on the public agenda. He developed the term »responsible society« as »imaginal goal of a future society«. He justified it theologically and made it concrete in social ethics. Theseconnections were brought together and tested in regard to their relevance today in Theodor Strohm's paper

What role does intuition play in making moral judgements? This question is becoming of key importance in the current debate on fundamentals in applied ethics. The difficulties begin in defining what intuitions exactly are. Another important question revolves around the role of intuitions in rational argument. The main proposition of this essay is that intuitions are not the same as judgements or convictions, although they are often regarded as equivalent, and that intuition is always involved in every attempt at moral reflection and argument.

Asthereisa permanent shortage of human organs for transplantation purposes new methods to provide organs are being developed. The author deals with these new developments as there are artificial organs, genetically engineered animal organs (i.e. xenotransplantation) and therapeutical cloning or embryonie stem cells to cultivate human organs. The goal of the article is to give an overview on these approaches and to summarize ethical aspects related to research, development and application of these methods

This article deals with different kinds of family life and parenthood that have developed. It is pointed out that for their own and their child's sake the parents should regard their relationship as a Iasting commitment, so that a spirit ofreliability, mutual trust and love can grow. The ethical task in this respect is not so much that ofmeeting a mere demand but- since what is demanded for (reliability, commitment) is, in the first place, a gift-tobe truly aware of one's commitment. The article also reflects upon legal aspects and describes the law's task to support and stabilize the relations people undertake by becoming partners and parents