The Role of Complicity in the Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research  

Oleh:

Birnbacher, Dieter

Jenis: Article from Books - E-Book
Dalam koleksi: Embryonic Stem-Cells Recent Advances in Pluripotent Stem Cell-Based Regenerative Medicine, page 3-20.
Topik: Embryonic Stem Cell; ESC Research
Fulltext: Pages from Embryonic_Stem_Cells_-_Recent_Advances_in_Pluripotent_Stem_Cell-Based_Regenerative_Medicine 1.pdf (207.6KB)

Isi artikel

In everyday language, complicity means taking part, in one way or the other, in a crime or wrongdoing done by another person. In general, the role of the accomplice is not strictly of the same quality as that of the main actor or, in legal terminology, of the principal. As a rule it is judged to of minor gravity. Nevertheless, if the offense is grave enough, the accomplice may be found guilty, in law, as an accessory to the crime, or, in general morality, become the object of moral reproach as standing in a relation to the wrongdoer analogous to that of accessory and principal. During the last decades, bioethical discussion has considerably extended the scope of the concept of complicity. Quite a number of further semantic facets were added to its standard meaning, making the concept extremely fruitful for a fine-grained ethical analysis of certain moral constellations involving a plurality of agents (cf. Singer 1993, 165 f., Luna, 1997, Friele 2000). These extensions concern weaker kinds of collaboration or collusion with a morally wrong act than the legal concept, in particular practices of making use of the results or products of a morally wrong or morally problematic activity. This kind of "eating fruit from a forbidden tree" is not usually subjected to the same moral criticism as the wrong act itself (henceforth "W"). But "complicity" continues to imply some kind of moral offensiveness. The concept keeps its negative connotation, though the degree to which the wrong of the "accomplice" (henceforth "C") is held be condemnable is usually significantly lower than that of the act to which it is accessory. Though the act of the "accomplice" is much less grave than the original act, it nevertheless leaves a "moral stain", however weak, on the accomplice.

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