Abstract

According to the position of the Roman Catholic Church, which is basically shared by the German Constitutional Court, the general prohibition against killing not only applies to existing human beings, but to human life in all of its stages of development beginning with conception. Thus, every single one of these stages "on the way to existence" receives the same protection. The reason given for this protection lies in the potential of the fertilized ovum to develop into a full human being. Only totipotent cells and cell clusters developing from them are such "stages on the way to existence". Again, according to the position of the Roman Catholic Church, only these kinds of cells and cell clusters deserve in and of themselves to be protected . Other kinds of cells and cell clusters, particularly pluripotent cells, however, do not deserve this kind of protection. It can been shown that in principle it is at least possible to "produce" self-aware "beings" from pluripotent cells . If we share the view that these beings should be protected in and of themselves - leaving aside the question whether or not their "production" is acceptable - what follows is that according to the position of the Roman Catholic Church one would also have to legally protect those cells which are capable of producing such a being. Consequently, one would also have to legally protect pluripotent cells by applying to them the general prohibition against killing. That, however, seems to be absurd. That one understandably enough does not apply the prohibition against killing to protect adult stem cells reveals that the connection between the totipotency of a cell and its legal protection by applying the general prohibition against killing is merely accidental. On the other hand, there is an essential connection between the general prohibition against killing and the beginning of brain activity in human beings. This conclusion complies with other approaches which identify the starting point for the legal protection of life with the beginning of brain activity . If one decides to identify the starting point for the legal protection of life with the beginning of brain activity, a couple of problems pertaining to the German "Embryo Protection Act" are disarmed. At least from the perspective of the general prohibition against killing one could no longer object to so-called "therapeutic cloning". Whether one should prohibit this technique for other reasons remains open for the purpose of this article