Verantwoordelikheid en die nuwe genetiese tegnologiee : filosofiese perspektiewe op die relevansie van 'n etiek van verantwoordelikheid vir morele besinning oor kloning en stamselnavorsing

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: New genetic technologies (e.g. stem-cell research, gene-therapies and cloning) raise someof the most enigmatic moral problems in the field of bioethics. My aim in this thesis is toexplore the philosophical and ethical significance of the idea of an 'ethics ofresponsibility (as, particularly, developed in the work of Hans Jonas, Zygmunt Baumanand Emmanuel Levinas) for moral reflection on these problems. 'Ethics ofresponsibility is a new approach to ethics that represents an alternative to both rulemorality (where moral action is identified with the application of rules) and utilitarianism(where moral action is identified with establishing the best consequences for the mostpeople). Rule morality has the serious shortcoming of being unable to deal with real andactual moral dilemmas, and of being unclear as to which rule applies in which situation.Utilitarianism has the serious shortcoming of often being way too counter-intuitive: deedsthat we normally find morally abhorrent, such a lying, stealing and even torturing can,within the utilitarian calculus, sometimes be justified. The notion of an ethics ofresponsibility has been promoted by the mentioned authors both to counter the simplisticidea that a rule exists in terms of which every moral action can be determined, but also tocounter the crassness of the utilitarian calculus. It represents an approach to ethics inwhich the interests of the other are taken as seriously as possible within the confines ofthe situation in which action is called for. My aim is to explore this approach critically,and to invesitgate its desirability, applicability and efficacy with particular reference tothe moral problems raised by the new genetic technologies.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University