Forthcoming
6. March 2012
Fischer, Nils: Islamische Positionen zum pränatalen Leben. Freiburg, München: Alber, 2012 (Ethik in den Biowissenschaften – Sachstandsberichte des DRZE, 14).
Summary: This study gives an overview of the historical, systematic and recent aspects of prenatal human life in Islam. It describes, analyses and discusses the religious sources and positions in classical Islamic law and their natural philosophical basis as well as the answers of contemporary Islamic religious scholars and Muslim scientists to the challenging questions in reproductive medicine and the life sciences. Finally it presents the legal situation in selected Islamic states described the cultural and historical context of the Middle East. It deals with several singular themes, e. g. termination of pregnancy, contraception, population control, in-vitro-fertilisation and research in human embroys. It also contains excursions on the concept of science and the terminology used in the Islamic discourse.
HTML Link to the publisher’s announcement (external)
New on the web
29. February 2012
Rose, Christina / Fischer, Nils: “Managing cultural diversity in medical care.” In: International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) (ed.): 18th IFAC World Congress, August 28–September 2, 2011, Milan. 18 vols. Red Hook, NY : Curran, 2011: Vol. 4, 4028–4033.
Summary: Times of “globalization” bring with themselves a considerably high amount of migration – a fact which, again, causes an increasing degree of such cultural diversity. Since literally every individual in his or her life is likely to somehow depend upon medical care, the challenge of cultural diversity and intercultural understanding in this context is a substantial issue when talking about international stability at the individual and societal level. Focusing especially on the interpersonal relationship and the face-to-face dialogue between physician and patient, this paper provides means for improving mutual understanding and patients’ compliance. It is based upon the methodological-hermeneutical concept of Intercultural Philosophy. From this point of view, e.g. a robot can never adequately care for a patient, because for convalescence it is also crucial to care about emotional, social and psychological constitution. In the tradition of the IFAC Committee Social Impact of Automation the paper goes beyond the wide use of technology in medicine today. It, thus, offers a starting point for a constructive interdisciplinary discourse between philosophy, medical ethics and the engineering community about whether technology-based medical treatment is a barrier to ethical behavior and a threat to stability – especially in intercultural settings. HTML Link (external)
Hot off the press
3. April 2010
Fischer, Nils: “Die afghanische Weltraummission. Islam in outer space, Teil II.” INAMO 16 (2010) 61: 68–69.
Summary: 25 years ago the first Muslim flew in the outer space, since then a number of Muslim astronauts went on this journey, amongst them a Saudi prince, a Syrian colonel and even a woman. However, the Afghan Abdulahad Momand’s travel to the space station Mir was a special mission as it was meant to be symbolic peace gesture after the Sowjet-Afghan war. HTML Link (external)
