WAS TUT GUT? - Universiteit Twente

What makes us feel good? Joy of living as a guideline in dealing with
medical technology, with the use of the protein chip as an example.
Principles of an epicurean health care.
Summary
In the beginning of the twenty-first century amazing progress has been made
in the field of medical technology. New diagnostic techniques are increasingly
enabling us to present physiological processes in a functional context. So far medical
techniques had mainly been limited to the analysis of single parameters: a cell, a
gene, a protein, but now a more synoptic view has become possible. One could say
that, instead of laboriously deciphering single letters, we can now read complete
books. This leads to high expectations of a better understanding of physical facts and
processes, and ways to influence them.
This process puts forward several questions: Where does this progress lead
us? What do we expect to achieve with constantly increasing medical care? What
about the resources to be invested in this field? How will the ever-increasing
transparency of physiological processes, which also bring to light aspects of the
personal way of life, influence the existing power structure in a society? Will the
extended possibilities to check one’s bodily functions influence the individual
responsibility? The way in which society deals with these questions will be of the
utmost importance for its development.
The traditional medical-ethical discourse, which normally deals with this kind
of questions, follows Immanuel Kant by usually referring to a centuries-old set of
values in which human dignity and human rights, leading to the modern rights of the
Individual, are the main reference points. In this context the faculty of reason is
regarded as the most outstanding human quality and new technological
achievements are analysed with particular regard to their potential effect on
individual autonomy.
The challenges of the present medical technological progress now show that
ethical beacons like human dignity, human rights and autonomy, which serve as
signposts in matters of violence, threat and oppression, have lost their interpreting
and indicating significance. They are not all that useful in discussions about the
questions asked above. As they are not very specific and limited in their perception
of human phenomena they may be used to justify opposite points of view. It has
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