The Concept of Species and its Normative Dimension

The conference is part of the project “The Manipulated Embryo. Potentiality and Species Membership revisited,” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and located at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

The concept of species is not only important for biology but also for other areas of research. Above all, it seems to play a crucial role for our self-understanding as humans, insofar as we understand ourselves as members of the species Homo sapiens. Therefore, this biological classification is of practical relevance for ethical issues. Especially at the beginning of human life the questions under discussion whether or not embryos are human beings and what moral relevance the species membership of embryos has. These questions concerning the meaning and relevance of the species membership become still more urgent with the growing possibilities of modern biotechnology to cross species boundaries.

The aim of the conference is to place this bioethical species argumentation in a larger philosophical context linking it with insights of ontology, philosophy of biology and also of legal theory: How can we understand the concept of species? What understanding of species stands behind the bioethical arguments that rely on species membership? Which understanding can and should be taken as a conceptional basis? What is the relation between being a human being and being a member of Homo sapiens? What is the role of humanity and/or species-membership in (bio-)ethical and legal thinking, and what should it be? How to deal ethically, if the species boundaries are crossed by creating human-animal hybrids? These are some of the questions that are to be discussed at the interdisciplinary conference.

Fig. above: © SFIO CRACHO / Fotolia