17.04.2020
"Death costs life" - On the concept of general life risk
Blog article by Dr. Wulf Loh
In its ad hoc recommendation of 27 March, the German Ethics Council addresses, among other things, the question of the limits to which the protection against infection could be subjected and speaks in this context of a "general risk to life" which "must be accepted by everyone". The recommendation leaves open exactly what is meant by this, as it only wants to make it plausible that the protection of human life is "not absolute". Nevertheless, the term has appeared repeatedly in the media since then, mostly to justify the continuation or abolition of this or that measure. This is hardly surprising; the term has an intuitive accessibility and suggestive power which can easily cover up the sometimes considerable cultural differences and individual dispositions in the respective approach to death and dying. Based on the motto: "Death costs life, memento mori ... you already know."