Innovations such as genetic engineering, reproductive medicine, implantations, cell, tissue or organ transplantation, and even pharmacology and intensive care have led to a considerable prolongation of life expectancy. These breakthroughs have also supported the capabilities of human bodies in defeating diseases and have contributed to a better quality of life - within, however, the still real constraints of finiteness.
Modern medicine is part of a cultural project.
Its normative programme aims at the mastery of nature and the organic mechanisms of the body, at the elimination of contingency in human existence. The first of two meetings will focus on the development of methods of bioethical deliberations, on the patterns of analysis they use, and on the practice of moral discourses within contemporary societies. Results of these reflections will be evaluated in the second meeting in selected hot topics in the field of biomedical technology and practice. The series should yield ways to evaluate differing proposals for action in biomedicine, as well as the setting of moral, social, and political priorities within liberal and pluralistic societies. Such discussions are taking place outside ethics, in different fields of humanities, but also within the sciences and medicine.