steirischer herbst 2009

Fundamental Rights Day 2009: Body Codes
Modern medicine, individual freedoms of action, and fundamental rights

89% lecture
11% law and order

Medicine and biotechnology have dramatically extended the individual’s possibilities of action: Prenatal testing, for example, can detect diseases and disabilities in the earliest stages of life, thus requiring parents to decide whether to have a child nevertheless. The freedom to choose, of course, is often accompanied by the uncertainty as to which decision is the right one. Morality is increasingly failing to offer guidance in this respect, as it has become pluralistic and now vies with other religious and ideological positions. Legal systems too have yet to find “generally valid” solutions for these complex situations, which often go beyond national borders.
The interdisciplinary Fundamental Rights Day focuses experience from medical and legal practice, revealing unresolved legal and political questions and presenting possible answers from the viewpoint of fundamental rights.

Organised by Vereinigung der österreichischen Richterinnen und Richter (Association of Austrian Lawyers), Karl-Franzens University Graz & Vienna University
In co-operation with steirischer herbst

Wed 30/09 & Thu 01/10
Lectures
Admission free

Wed 30/09, 10 am - 1 pm
Stefan Huster (D)
”Gleichheit durch Gleichgültigkeit?“
Friedhelm Hufen (D)
”Pränatales Leben und Behindertendiskriminierung“

Thu 01/10, 9.30 am - 2 pm
Barbara Duden (D)
"Sollten wir nicht vom Ende des 'Rechts' sprechen, wenn die Biomedizin den Menschen definiert?"
Christian Kopetzki (A)
"Ware Körper"

Wed 30/09, 3 - 5.30 pm
Workshops

Festival centre

Curated by
Christian Kopetzki (A), Magdalena Pöschl (A) & Mia Wittmann-Tiwald (A)