What’s Missing in Secular Bioethics? The False Dichotomy between “the Secular” and “the Theological”

Abstract

[EN] Considered from a normative perspective, secular bioethics does not require anything from a theological discourse. And likewise, it does not require anything from an atheist discourse either. It depends rather on a debate whose pluralism has to be grounded in secular conditions. Therefore, it cannot be expected that a substantive approach should be the ground of the public bioethical discourse. A different question would be the proper place of religion (religions with political valence as Christianity) at legally tackling bioethical issues which touch upon sensitive religious topics. But this is a political matter, not a theoretical gap.