Autonomy and Love in Bioethics

Mit Entscheidungen, etwa über die Behandlung eines komatösen Patienten, sind nahe Angehörige oder Partner des Patienten oft überfordert. Welches Gewicht sollte Ihre Auffassung gegenüber einer womöglich vorhandenen Patientenverfügung oder der Meinung des behandelnden Arztes haben? Viele Fälle von Patientenautonomie müssen anders betrachtet werden, wenn Liebe als weiterer Faktor berücksichtigt werden soll. Der Workshop Autonomy and Love in Bioethics soll diesen Fragen zur Diskussion stellen. Die Veranstaltung findet statt am 12. März 2012 in Raum G 1.32 (Geiststraße 24-26). Bei Interesse an einer Teilnahme melden Sie sich bitte im Sekretariat der Kolleg-Forschergruppe.

Autonomy and Love

Recent debate in bioethics has often—and for good reason—focused on the concept of autonomy. However, in a number of bioethical contexts, e.g. proxy decisions, ethics of care, human experimentation with people unable to give their consent, or living donation in close personal relationships, the phenomenon of love can play a crucial role as well. Thus, the question arises of how these contexts are to be analyzed and assessed if not only autonomy but also love shall be accounted for adequately. 

However, this raises another and more fundamental question. For, different conceptions of love may have different implications in their respective relationship to autonomy. Basically, three influential strands of how to analyze love have to be taken into account: individualistic notions, conceptions of love as union, and interpersonal conceptions. In what way, then, do these different accounts of love relate to autonomy and a person’s self, especially when social relational conditions and theoretical approaches based on the importance of interpersonal recognition are to be acknowledged? 

The aim of the workshop is to address this fundamental question and to discuss possible conclusions on how to assess specific bioethical problems when autonomy as well as love is at stake.

 Programm

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