Issues 150-126

Issue 139: Christofer Frey and Peter Dabrock: Tun und Unterlassen beim klinischen Entscheidungskonfliktfall. Perspektiven einer (nicht nur) theologischen Identitätsethik. August 2002

Difficulties in assessing the morally relevant difference of commission and omission are caused by the modern clinical setting. In most situations, a consequentialist action-theoretic approach is unable to deal with this conflict adequately: There is first the problem of highly complex technical systems that undermine categories of action theory. Second, one has to consider the development of individual and collective identities that root in language communities. Consequently, the conflict has to be embedded in the particular institutional setting. This study tries to overcome the one-dimensional consequentialist perspective on a conflict of commission and omissions by illuminating it in the broader context of questions of identity and responsibility and its borderlines.