Fritz Jahr’s (1895-1953) European concept of bioethics and its application potential

Abstract

In 1926, the protestant theologian Fritz Jahr (1895-1953) from Halle defined the European concept of bioethics in a broad sense in his paper Wissenschaft vom Leben und Sittenlehre in the Journal Die Mittelschule. He combined ethics and science by advocating the introduction of moral values to science education in school. In 1927, Jahr developed his concept in the Journal Kosmos as a moral obligation not only towards humans, but all living beings and phrased it as an imperative: “Regard every living being in principle as an end in itself and treat it accordingly as far as possible.” With this formulation, Fritz Jahr achieved a much broader concept of bioethics in 1926 than the narrow interpretation that has been paradigmatic in the shift from a paternalistic to a cooperative approach in medical ethics in the USA since the 1970s.