Modern molecular technology in the so-called life sciences (biology as weil as medicine) allows
today to approach and manipulate living beings in ways and to an extent wh ich not too long aga
seemed Utopian. The empirical progress promises further and even more radical developments in
the future and it is at least often claimed that this kind of research will have tremendeous
etfects on and for all of humanity for example in the areas of food production
transplantation medicine (including stem cell research and xenotransplantation) (therapeutic)
genetic manipulation and (cell-line) cloning (of cell lines or tissues) and of biodiversity
conservation-strategies. At least in Western industrialized countries the development of
modern sciences led to a steady increase of human health well-being and quality of life.
However with the move to make the human body itself an object of scientific research
interests the respective scientific descriptions resulted in changes in the image that human
beings have of themselves. Scientific progress has led to a startling loss of traditional human
self-understanding. This development is in contrast to an under standing according to which
the question what it means to be human is treated in the realm of philosophy. And indeed a
closer look reveals that - without denying the value of scientitic progress - science cannot
replace the philosophical approach to anthropological questions.
