Solidarity as a phenomenon lies like an erratic block in the midst of the moral landscape of our age. Until now, the geologists familiar with this landscape - ethicists and moral theorists - have taken it for granted, have circumnavigated it! in any case, they have been incapable of moving it. In the present volume, scientists from diverse disciplines discuss and examine the concept of solidarity, its history, its scope and its limits.

Books do not come about by accident. This is especially the case when a volume grows out of a conference for which the participants wrote the original contributions in different languages. This volume descends from a conference held at the Zentrumjiir interdiszipliniire Forschung, University of Bielefeld, Germany, October 4 through 6, 1990, under the title "Technische Eingriffe in die menschliche Reproduktion: Per spektiven eines moralischen Konsenses." Many with great generosity helped to ensure that the conference was a success and that the papers presented grew into a book. We want in...

Sanctity of life' and human dignity' are two bioethical concepts that play an important role in bioethical discussions. Despite their separate history and content, they have similar functions in these discussions. In many cases they are used to bring a difficult or controversial debate to an end. They serve as unquestionable cornerstones of morality, as rocks able to weather the storms of moral pluralism. This book provides the reader with analyses of these two concepts from different philosophical, professional and cultural points of view. Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity presents...