Nikolaus Knoepffler | Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (original) (raw)

Papers by Nikolaus Knoepffler

Ecclesiology, 2021

A 2020 decision by Germany’s highest court dramatically shifted the national discussion on assist... more A 2020 decision by Germany’s highest court dramatically shifted the national discussion on assisted suicide. The decision stressed the ‘right to a self-determined death’ which must ‘be respected by state and society as an act of personal autonomy and self-determination’. Moreover, it clarified the non-criminality of assistance for suicides by third parties. The reaction of the main churches in Germany to this decision reflects ecclesiological differences. Protestant positions on assisted suicide are defined by pluralism; the Roman Catholic official position remains tied to ontologically-referenced principles of natural law that prohibit assisted suicide as intrinsically evil. Thus, ecumenical efforts on bioethics are complicated by a context where many Protestant leaders prioritize autonomy and pluralism, whereas Roman Catholic leaders stress consensus and orthodoxy. Even official church guidelines on such matters are received differently in Protestant and Roman Catholic communities...

Regulatory and Economic Aspects in Oncology, 2018

Conditions of scarcity impact healthcare services for cancer patients. This is the unpleasant rea... more Conditions of scarcity impact healthcare services for cancer patients. This is the unpleasant reality for nations, local governments, hospitals, and even individual doctors. This means that medical services judged by objective standards as potentially effective by medical professionals are limited because of financial or access scarcity. With this situation of scarcity as premise, one must raise the ethical question of how to deal with scarcity while respecting fundamental principles of human dignity and human rights. This chapter focuses on the German healthcare context where dignity and rights form the basis and framework for medical ethics. Accordingly, in Germany, rationing medical services for life-threatening diseases has been traditionally and appropriately criticized and prohibited. Granting a situation of scarcity, however, some prioritization becomes increasingly necessary. Thus, there is present need for careful ethical analysis of non-emergency regulatory prioritization principles and protocols. Above all, analysis and conclusions must preserve and foster society's deepest moral commitments.

Ethics & Bioethics, 2021

Vaccine scarcity and availability distinguish two central ethics questions raised by the Covid-19... more Vaccine scarcity and availability distinguish two central ethics questions raised by the Covid-19 pandemic. First, in situations of scarcity, which groups of persons should receive priority? Second, in situations where safe and effective vaccines are available, what circumstances and reasons can support mandatory vaccination? Regarding the first question, normative approaches converge in prioritizing most-vulnerable groups. Though there is room for prudential judgement regarding which groups are most vulnerable, the human dignity principle is most relevant for prioritization consideration of both medical and non-medical issues. The second question concerning mandates is distinct from considerations about persons’ individual moral duty to receive vaccines judged reasonably safe and critical for individual and public health. While there is consensus regarding the potential normative support for mandated vaccination, the paternalistic government intervention of vaccine mandates require...

Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology, 2018

Ecclesiology, 2017

Karl Rahner’s ecclesial theology remains relevant for ecumenical work and specifically for the ec... more Karl Rahner’s ecclesial theology remains relevant for ecumenical work and specifically for the ecumenically thorny questions about papal authority and the infallibility doctrine. Rahner’s approach offers insight for unifying Christian churches in three ways: 1. prioritizing the papal office’s unifying role; 2. interpreting the doctrine of infallibility within an incarnate ecclesiology; and 3. contextualizing papal authority within a theology of communion and a subsidiarity administrative model. With this approach, infallibility is framed as a matter of doctrine and order, but a doctrine and order rooted in and reflecting the ‘sensus fidelium’. The pope is the ‘concrete guarantor of the unity of the church in truth and love’ 1 and not an absolute monarch. Rahner’s call for ecumenical reforms serves the mission of the whole church – the sacrament of the incarnate God – on the personal, parish, diocese, regional, and universal levels. Many monarchical symbols of the papacy have been re...

Order Ethics: An Ethical Framework for the Social Market Economy, 2016

The following discussion uses these three brief case studies to illustrate first the inadequacy o... more The following discussion uses these three brief case studies to illustrate first the inadequacy of classic bioethical approaches and the basic reasons why approaches that rely on moralistic rules, shaming, and ethics as the setting of limiting rules are unable to efficiently guide medicine in avoiding the dilemmas of the cases. The paper then examines how structural misalignments and institutional incentives are relevant for medical ethics. Finally, the paper offers an argument for an ordonomic approach for medical ethics analogous to the ordonomic approach in business ethics (Pies et al. 2009).

The CRISPR Journal, 2020

The case of twins born with genes modified by He Jiankui highlights the need for international go... more The case of twins born with genes modified by He Jiankui highlights the need for international governance of germline gene editing (GGE). This article proposes a global framework that utilizes "ordo-responsibilities." This is a pragmatic ethical approach open to pluralism and grounded in principles of human dignity and human rights. Ordo-responsibility is pragmatic in (1) accepting generally available values on a global level (e.g., human dignity, human rights) and (2) seeking achievable implementation. Genetic science is practiced globally in ways that transcend borders. As such, its practice must take account of the vast complexity of cultural, ethical, legal, and anthropological convictions. Here, we explain the basic structure of an appropriate rule-finding process, outline a possible pathway toward an international framework, and discuss minimal requirements that are needed in that endeavor. We thereby contribute to the debate on how to govern genome-editing technologies and GGE globally.

Evelyn Walter (ed.), Regulatory and Economic Aspects in Oncology. Springer Nature: Switzerland., 2019

Conditions of scarcity impact healthcare services for cancer patients. This is the unpleasant rea... more Conditions of scarcity impact healthcare services for cancer patients. This is the unpleasant reality for nations, local governments, hospitals, and even individual doctors. This means that medical services judged by objective standards as potentially effective by medical professionals are limited because of financial or access scarcity. With this situation of scarcity as premise, one must raise the ethical question of how to deal with scarcity while respecting fundamental principles of human dignity and human rights. This chapter focuses on the German healthcare context where dignity and rights form the basis and framework for medical ethics. Accordingly, in Germany, rationing medical services for life-threatening diseases has been traditionally and appropriately criticized and prohibited. Granting a situation of scarcity, however, some prioritization becomes increasingly necessary. Thus, there is present need for careful ethical analysis of non-emergency regulatory prioritization principles and protocols. Above all, analysis and conclusions must preserve and foster society’s deepest moral commitments.

Karl Rahner's ecclesial theology remains relevant for ecumenical work and specifically for the ec... more Karl Rahner's ecclesial theology remains relevant for ecumenical work and specifically for the ecumenically thorny questions about papal authority and the infallibility doctrine. Rahner's approach offers insight for unifying Christian churches in three ways: 1. prioritizing the papal office's unifying role; 2. interpreting the doctrine of infallibility within an incarnate ecclesiology; and 3. contextualizing papal authority within a theology of communion and a subsidiarity administrative model. With this approach, infallibility is framed as a matter of doctrine and order, but a doctrine and order rooted in and reflecting the 'sensus fidelium'. The pope is the 'concrete guarantor of the unity of the church in truth and love'1 and not an absolute monarch. Rahner's call for ecumenical reforms serves the mission of the whole church – the sacrament of the incarnate God – on the personal, parish, diocese, regional, and universal levels. Many monarchical symbols of the papacy have been retired in recent years with the papacy of Francis, marking a moment ripe for Rahner's approach. The article concludes with a reflection upon how Francis' ministry reveals a commitment to communion theology of the Second Vatican Council and the subsidiarity principle that embodies Rahner's epistemological tolerance.

Nikolaus Knoepffler and Martin O’Malley address the problem complex of medical ethics in Chapter ... more Nikolaus Knoepffler and Martin O’Malley address the problem complex of medical ethics in Chapter “An Ordonomic Perspective in Medical Ethics”, by going through a number of classical approaches to medical ethics—the Hippocratic Oath, the Christian tradition, the 4-principles approach, utilitarian ethics and human rights views. As the authors explain, all of these address themselves to individual moral agents and focus on their individual moral choices. This makes them to some extent inadequate as approaches to medical ethics because they have to rely on moralistic rules and individual blaming. Knoepffler and O’Malley argue that an Order Ethics or ordonomic perspective on medical ethics is more adequate and illustrate this using a number of practical and highly relevant examples (e.g. the allocation of organs and scarce resources in the healthcare sector). These examples bring out the importance of institutions and incentives scheme in the resolution of these ethical problems. Nevertheless, Knoepffler and O’Malley believe that an integrated approach between the ordonomic view and conventional individual-focused moral conceptions is viable as an approach to medical ethics.

Vorträge des 3. internationalen Kongresses der Gesellschaft für Analytische Philosophie vom 15. bis zum 18. September 1997 in München / Proceedings of the 3rd international Congress of the Society for Analytical Philosophy September 15-18, 1997 in Munich, 2000

Handbuch zur Begutachtung, Qualitätsprüfung, Beratung und Fortbildung, 2013

Politik aus christlicher Verantwortung, 2007

Die rasanten naturwissenschaftlichen, medizinischen und gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen haben di... more Die rasanten naturwissenschaftlichen, medizinischen und gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen haben die Notwendigkeit entstehen lassen, für konkrete bioethische Konfliktfälle zu rechtlichen Regelungen zu kommen. Sollen entsprechende Entscheidungen nicht nach reinen Mehrheitsgesichtspunkten und Opportunitätsgründen fallen, sondern in gewisser Weise die moralischen Überzeugungen der jeweiligen pluralistischen Gesellschaft abbilden, so wird die Suche nach einem gemeinsamen Band zwischen den unterschiedlichen weltanschaulichen Basisüberzeugungen (z.B. religiöser oder säkularer Art) dringlich. Rechtliche Bestimmungen setzen für ihre Durchsetzbarkeit nämlich eine grundsätzliche Akzeptanz in der Bevölkerung voraus. Diese Akzeptanz fällt umso leichter, umso mehr die rechtlichen Bestimmungen den moralischen Überzeugungen entsprechen.

Doping in Ost und West, 2008

Auf der Suche nach einem Gleichgewicht, 2005

Revista de derecho y genoma humano = Law and the human genome review / Cátedra de Derecho y Genoma Humano/Fundación BBV-Diputación Foral de Bizkaia

Ecclesiology, 2021

A 2020 decision by Germany’s highest court dramatically shifted the national discussion on assist... more A 2020 decision by Germany’s highest court dramatically shifted the national discussion on assisted suicide. The decision stressed the ‘right to a self-determined death’ which must ‘be respected by state and society as an act of personal autonomy and self-determination’. Moreover, it clarified the non-criminality of assistance for suicides by third parties. The reaction of the main churches in Germany to this decision reflects ecclesiological differences. Protestant positions on assisted suicide are defined by pluralism; the Roman Catholic official position remains tied to ontologically-referenced principles of natural law that prohibit assisted suicide as intrinsically evil. Thus, ecumenical efforts on bioethics are complicated by a context where many Protestant leaders prioritize autonomy and pluralism, whereas Roman Catholic leaders stress consensus and orthodoxy. Even official church guidelines on such matters are received differently in Protestant and Roman Catholic communities...

Regulatory and Economic Aspects in Oncology, 2018

Conditions of scarcity impact healthcare services for cancer patients. This is the unpleasant rea... more Conditions of scarcity impact healthcare services for cancer patients. This is the unpleasant reality for nations, local governments, hospitals, and even individual doctors. This means that medical services judged by objective standards as potentially effective by medical professionals are limited because of financial or access scarcity. With this situation of scarcity as premise, one must raise the ethical question of how to deal with scarcity while respecting fundamental principles of human dignity and human rights. This chapter focuses on the German healthcare context where dignity and rights form the basis and framework for medical ethics. Accordingly, in Germany, rationing medical services for life-threatening diseases has been traditionally and appropriately criticized and prohibited. Granting a situation of scarcity, however, some prioritization becomes increasingly necessary. Thus, there is present need for careful ethical analysis of non-emergency regulatory prioritization principles and protocols. Above all, analysis and conclusions must preserve and foster society's deepest moral commitments.

Ethics & Bioethics, 2021

Vaccine scarcity and availability distinguish two central ethics questions raised by the Covid-19... more Vaccine scarcity and availability distinguish two central ethics questions raised by the Covid-19 pandemic. First, in situations of scarcity, which groups of persons should receive priority? Second, in situations where safe and effective vaccines are available, what circumstances and reasons can support mandatory vaccination? Regarding the first question, normative approaches converge in prioritizing most-vulnerable groups. Though there is room for prudential judgement regarding which groups are most vulnerable, the human dignity principle is most relevant for prioritization consideration of both medical and non-medical issues. The second question concerning mandates is distinct from considerations about persons’ individual moral duty to receive vaccines judged reasonably safe and critical for individual and public health. While there is consensus regarding the potential normative support for mandated vaccination, the paternalistic government intervention of vaccine mandates require...

Kanerva’s Occupational Dermatology, 2018

Ecclesiology, 2017

Karl Rahner’s ecclesial theology remains relevant for ecumenical work and specifically for the ec... more Karl Rahner’s ecclesial theology remains relevant for ecumenical work and specifically for the ecumenically thorny questions about papal authority and the infallibility doctrine. Rahner’s approach offers insight for unifying Christian churches in three ways: 1. prioritizing the papal office’s unifying role; 2. interpreting the doctrine of infallibility within an incarnate ecclesiology; and 3. contextualizing papal authority within a theology of communion and a subsidiarity administrative model. With this approach, infallibility is framed as a matter of doctrine and order, but a doctrine and order rooted in and reflecting the ‘sensus fidelium’. The pope is the ‘concrete guarantor of the unity of the church in truth and love’ 1 and not an absolute monarch. Rahner’s call for ecumenical reforms serves the mission of the whole church – the sacrament of the incarnate God – on the personal, parish, diocese, regional, and universal levels. Many monarchical symbols of the papacy have been re...

Order Ethics: An Ethical Framework for the Social Market Economy, 2016

The following discussion uses these three brief case studies to illustrate first the inadequacy o... more The following discussion uses these three brief case studies to illustrate first the inadequacy of classic bioethical approaches and the basic reasons why approaches that rely on moralistic rules, shaming, and ethics as the setting of limiting rules are unable to efficiently guide medicine in avoiding the dilemmas of the cases. The paper then examines how structural misalignments and institutional incentives are relevant for medical ethics. Finally, the paper offers an argument for an ordonomic approach for medical ethics analogous to the ordonomic approach in business ethics (Pies et al. 2009).

The CRISPR Journal, 2020

The case of twins born with genes modified by He Jiankui highlights the need for international go... more The case of twins born with genes modified by He Jiankui highlights the need for international governance of germline gene editing (GGE). This article proposes a global framework that utilizes "ordo-responsibilities." This is a pragmatic ethical approach open to pluralism and grounded in principles of human dignity and human rights. Ordo-responsibility is pragmatic in (1) accepting generally available values on a global level (e.g., human dignity, human rights) and (2) seeking achievable implementation. Genetic science is practiced globally in ways that transcend borders. As such, its practice must take account of the vast complexity of cultural, ethical, legal, and anthropological convictions. Here, we explain the basic structure of an appropriate rule-finding process, outline a possible pathway toward an international framework, and discuss minimal requirements that are needed in that endeavor. We thereby contribute to the debate on how to govern genome-editing technologies and GGE globally.

Evelyn Walter (ed.), Regulatory and Economic Aspects in Oncology. Springer Nature: Switzerland., 2019

Conditions of scarcity impact healthcare services for cancer patients. This is the unpleasant rea... more Conditions of scarcity impact healthcare services for cancer patients. This is the unpleasant reality for nations, local governments, hospitals, and even individual doctors. This means that medical services judged by objective standards as potentially effective by medical professionals are limited because of financial or access scarcity. With this situation of scarcity as premise, one must raise the ethical question of how to deal with scarcity while respecting fundamental principles of human dignity and human rights. This chapter focuses on the German healthcare context where dignity and rights form the basis and framework for medical ethics. Accordingly, in Germany, rationing medical services for life-threatening diseases has been traditionally and appropriately criticized and prohibited. Granting a situation of scarcity, however, some prioritization becomes increasingly necessary. Thus, there is present need for careful ethical analysis of non-emergency regulatory prioritization principles and protocols. Above all, analysis and conclusions must preserve and foster society’s deepest moral commitments.

Karl Rahner's ecclesial theology remains relevant for ecumenical work and specifically for the ec... more Karl Rahner's ecclesial theology remains relevant for ecumenical work and specifically for the ecumenically thorny questions about papal authority and the infallibility doctrine. Rahner's approach offers insight for unifying Christian churches in three ways: 1. prioritizing the papal office's unifying role; 2. interpreting the doctrine of infallibility within an incarnate ecclesiology; and 3. contextualizing papal authority within a theology of communion and a subsidiarity administrative model. With this approach, infallibility is framed as a matter of doctrine and order, but a doctrine and order rooted in and reflecting the 'sensus fidelium'. The pope is the 'concrete guarantor of the unity of the church in truth and love'1 and not an absolute monarch. Rahner's call for ecumenical reforms serves the mission of the whole church – the sacrament of the incarnate God – on the personal, parish, diocese, regional, and universal levels. Many monarchical symbols of the papacy have been retired in recent years with the papacy of Francis, marking a moment ripe for Rahner's approach. The article concludes with a reflection upon how Francis' ministry reveals a commitment to communion theology of the Second Vatican Council and the subsidiarity principle that embodies Rahner's epistemological tolerance.

Nikolaus Knoepffler and Martin O’Malley address the problem complex of medical ethics in Chapter ... more Nikolaus Knoepffler and Martin O’Malley address the problem complex of medical ethics in Chapter “An Ordonomic Perspective in Medical Ethics”, by going through a number of classical approaches to medical ethics—the Hippocratic Oath, the Christian tradition, the 4-principles approach, utilitarian ethics and human rights views. As the authors explain, all of these address themselves to individual moral agents and focus on their individual moral choices. This makes them to some extent inadequate as approaches to medical ethics because they have to rely on moralistic rules and individual blaming. Knoepffler and O’Malley argue that an Order Ethics or ordonomic perspective on medical ethics is more adequate and illustrate this using a number of practical and highly relevant examples (e.g. the allocation of organs and scarce resources in the healthcare sector). These examples bring out the importance of institutions and incentives scheme in the resolution of these ethical problems. Nevertheless, Knoepffler and O’Malley believe that an integrated approach between the ordonomic view and conventional individual-focused moral conceptions is viable as an approach to medical ethics.

Vorträge des 3. internationalen Kongresses der Gesellschaft für Analytische Philosophie vom 15. bis zum 18. September 1997 in München / Proceedings of the 3rd international Congress of the Society for Analytical Philosophy September 15-18, 1997 in Munich, 2000

Handbuch zur Begutachtung, Qualitätsprüfung, Beratung und Fortbildung, 2013

Politik aus christlicher Verantwortung, 2007

Die rasanten naturwissenschaftlichen, medizinischen und gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen haben di... more Die rasanten naturwissenschaftlichen, medizinischen und gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen haben die Notwendigkeit entstehen lassen, für konkrete bioethische Konfliktfälle zu rechtlichen Regelungen zu kommen. Sollen entsprechende Entscheidungen nicht nach reinen Mehrheitsgesichtspunkten und Opportunitätsgründen fallen, sondern in gewisser Weise die moralischen Überzeugungen der jeweiligen pluralistischen Gesellschaft abbilden, so wird die Suche nach einem gemeinsamen Band zwischen den unterschiedlichen weltanschaulichen Basisüberzeugungen (z.B. religiöser oder säkularer Art) dringlich. Rechtliche Bestimmungen setzen für ihre Durchsetzbarkeit nämlich eine grundsätzliche Akzeptanz in der Bevölkerung voraus. Diese Akzeptanz fällt umso leichter, umso mehr die rechtlichen Bestimmungen den moralischen Überzeugungen entsprechen.

Doping in Ost und West, 2008

Auf der Suche nach einem Gleichgewicht, 2005

Revista de derecho y genoma humano = Law and the human genome review / Cátedra de Derecho y Genoma Humano/Fundación BBV-Diputación Foral de Bizkaia

From Bacon to Dewey, the texts of this collection were all written in the English language over a... more From Bacon to Dewey, the texts of this collection were all written in the English language over a 300-year span. Much more unites the authors, of course, but most importantly they all share that common language and the history associated with the island of Great Britain – whether subjects of its crown or not. That history is both distinctly European and distinct from the European continent even in the branches that developed apart from the British island, most notably in North America. The 16th-century English Reformation and World War 1 bracket the time frame adopted for the present collection. This was a period when British political power extended around the globe. The ideas developed by this collection’s Anglophone philosophers had perhaps even wider reach and impact.