A Right to Life before Birth. Human Dignity in Biolaw - The Broken Promise?

Wissenschaftlicher Aufsatz aus dem Jahr 2015 im Fachbereich Jura - Rechtsphilosophie, Rechtssoziologie, Rechtsgeschichte, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The question if unborn children have a right to life is among the most hotly contested political issues in many countries. At the same time is the notion that every human being has some inalienable human rights and an inherent human dignity almost universally accepted. While the question of the right to life of the unborn child can also be dealt with as a legal, rather than a political, problem, the widespread legal availability of abortion also in states which emphasize the importance of human dignity as a legal concept, exposes a disconnection between national and international biolegal claims and the implementation of biolaw on the national level. Looking at the European Convention on Human Rights and Germany's Constitution, which is famous for opening with a commitment to human dignity, it will be shown that human dignity does indeed matter as a legal concept and that human rights are at a more general risk, if this concept is given up easily.

Docent Dr. Stefan Kirchner, Assessor jur., MJI is Associate Professor for Arctic Law at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland, and Adjunct Professor of Fundamental and Human Rights at the same university. His work focuses on the crossroads of human rights, the environment, shared areas, in particular the oceans and outer space, and international business and trade. Prior to joining the Arctic Governance Research Group at the Arctic Centre he taught public law, international law and civil rights as Visiting Professor for Transitional Justice at the University of Turin (Italy), University Lecturer and Associate Professor for Fundamental and Human Rights, with a Special Focus on Indigenous Rights, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi (Finland), Assistant Professor for International Law and Associate Professor for the Law of the Sea at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (Lithuania), scientific employee in the Department of Public Law of the Faculty of Law of Georg-August-University in Göttingen (Germany), and Visiting Lecturer at the Institute of International Relations at Tars Shevchenko National University in Kyiv (Ukraine) and at the Faculty of Law Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen (Germany). Formerly a practising lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) in Germany for over a decade, he has worked on international trade law, corporate law, the law of the sea and human rights law, including cases at the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof), the German Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) and the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, he served as legal agent for Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, working on international shipping law, oil pollution and seafarer training issues. Dr. Kirchner is active in a number of professional organizations and is a regular reviewer for a number of academic publishing houses and academic journals, a member of editorial boards for several international academic journals and has written over one hundred academic articles and book chapters. He has been an evaluator of research projects for the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. Prior to his legal career he worked as a freelance journalist in Germany, as an emergency medical technician (Rettungssanitäter) for the German Red Cross and as a factory worker for a company producing transformers.