Bioethics of Fritz Jahr in the Context of Bioethical Development

Dugo je vremena u akademskoj zajednici vladalo uvjerenje kako je „otac bioetike“ američki biokemičar Van Rensselaer Potter (1911.–2001.). Pojam „bioetika“ prvi je put upotrijebio 1970. godine, u člancima „Bioethics: The Science of Survival“ i „Biocybernetics and Survival“, a potom i 1971. u knjizi Bioethics: Bridge to the Future. Međutim, sam pojam bioetike zapravo je prvi put upotrijebljen nekoliko desetljeća ranije, zaslugom njemačkog učitelja i protestantskog pastora Fritza Jahra (1895.– 1953.), što je otkriveno tek početkom 21. stoljeća. On je, u svome članku „Wissenschaft vom Leben und Sittenlehre“ 1926. godine, a zatim i u kasnijim radovima, koristio pojam „Bio-Ethik“, sastavljen od grčkih riječi „bios“ (život) i „ethika“ (etika), koji sugerira da naše moralne dužnosti ne vrijede samo u međuljudskim odnosima, nego bi se trebale odnositi i na ne-ljudska živa bića, naime, biljke i životinje. Dok je Potterova, ali i cijela američka bioetika, primarno usmjerena na biomedicinsku problematiku, Jahrova, a može se reći i europska bioetika u cjelini, fokusira se na odnos čovjeka prema ne-ljudskim bićima i prirodi u cjelini te je u filozofskom pogledu ukorijenjena u europskoj filozofskoj tradiciji, gdje su presudni antičko-grčki i kršćanski elementi. Zadaća ovog diplomskoga rada jest prikazati, analizirati i interpretirati radove Fritza Jahra (s naglaskom na njegov „bioetički imperativ“, ali i u odnosu na filozofske klasike, poput, primjerice, Kanta), čemu će prethoditi tematiziranje samoga pojma bioetike i postojećih razlika u shvaćanju bioetike, a slijediti komparativna analiza Jahrove i Potterove bioetike, uz dodatak posvećen drugim (ne-jahrovskim i ne-potterovskim) korijenima i shvaćanjima bioetike. In academic community for a long time there has been a belief that “the father of bioethics” was American biochemist Van Rensselaer Potter (1911–2001). For the first time the term ‘bioethics’ was used in 1970, in articles “Bioethics: The Science of Survival” and “Biocybernetics and Survival”, and in 1971, in the book Bioethics: Bridge to the Future. However, the term ‘bioethics’ was actually used for the first time a couple of decades earlier, due to credit of German teacher and protestant pastor Fritz Jahr (1895–1953), which was only discovered at the beginning of the 21st century. In his article “Wissenschaft vom Leben und Sittenlehre” in 1926 and then in his later works, he used the term ‘Bio-Ethik’, consisted of Greek words ‘bios’ (life) and ‘ethika’ (ethics), which suggests that our moral duties do not stand only in our human relation, but also should be applied to non-human living beings – plants and animals. While Potter’s, but also American bioethics, was primarily focused on biomedical problematics, Jahr’s and European bioethics has its focus on the relation between the human beings towards non-human beings and nature, so that in philosophical point of view has its roots in European philosophical tradition, where the main elements are ancient Greek and Christian ones. The main focus of this graduation thesis is to show, analyse and interpret the works of Fritz Jahr (with the focus on his “bioethical imperative”, but also in relation to the classics of philosophy (for example, Kant), which will be followed by thematisation of the term ‘bioethics’ and existing differences in understanding of bioethics. This will lead to comparative analysis of Jahr’s and Potter’s bioethics, with the addition dedicated to other (non-Jahrian and non-Potterian) roots and understandings of the bioethics.