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Christian Bioethics 2008 14(1):95-107; doi:10.1093/cb/cbn006
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of The Journal of Christian Bioethics, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Contribution of the Protestant1 Church in Germany to the Pluralist Discourse in Bioethics: The Case of Stem Cell Research

Ralph Charbonnier

Zentrum für Gesundheitsethik an der Evangelischen Akademie Loccum, Hannover, 30159 Hannover, Germany

Address correspondence to: Dr. theol. Ralph Charbonnier, Zentrum für Gesundheitsethik an der Evangelischen Akademie Loccum, Hannover, Knochenhauerstr. 33, 30159 Hannover. E-mail: ralph.charbonnier{at}evlka.de


  Abstract

Christian contributions to the public discourse on bioethics come from individual Christians, from Christian churches, and from academic theology. All contributors must frame their arguments in such a way as to account for the pluralism of worldviews in contemporary Germany. For this purpose, they must take issue with certain hermeneutical and discourse theoretical considerations. That is to say, in order for their contributions to remain normatively authentic in a Christian and Protestant sense, these must relate to Scripture and to Protestantism's confessional documents, and in order for these contributions to remain pertinent and relevant to the facts, they must relate to biomedical, philosophical, and legal contexts. Given these hermeneutical and discourse theoretical requirements, two church statements addressing the ethical discussion concerning the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research are analyzed.

Keywords: hermeneutics, pluralism, Protestant church of Germany, stem cell research


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