Understanding of Conscience in the German Parliament: Ethical Implications for Voting without Party Discipline with Special Consideration of Bioethical Issues

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Stem cell research, living wills or the businesslike promotion of suicide: In recent years, votes on bioethical issues in the German Bundestag have consistently been explicitly declared to be decisions of conscience and Members of Parliament (MPs) have been released from party discipline.In the project, the concept of conscience, which is central to parliamentary decision-making in the political system of the FRG as the core of the understanding of the mandate, is examined from a theological-philosophical perspective in the context of its use in the German Bundestag. The aim is to create a basis for further debate as well as to initiate a reflection on the use of the concept of conscience. To this end, the roll-call votes since the founding of the FRG, which were explicitly declared to be decisions of conscience without party discipline across party lines, will be opened up and changes in relation to the frequency of the lifting of party discipline as well as the subjects of the votes will be examined.For the periods 1960-1979 and 2000-2019, the MPs' understandings of conscience will be developed on the basis of previously elaborated poles of tension of the concept of conscience. These poles of tension are obtained from an analysis of the philosophical, theological and psychological literature, complementing a draft by Schaede/Moos (2015). The achievements and limits of the understandings of conscience are worked out by showing which of the poles of tension are represented in the MPs' understandings of conscience and which are not taken into account.The results of the project will be published in a generally understandable publication, which will be accompanied by a podcast to make the results accessible to a broader public. Part of the project is also an interdisciplinary workshop in which the poles of tension developed in the first year will be discussed before the MPs' understandings of conscience are characterised with the help of the poles of tension. Towards the end of the project, an interdisciplinary conference is planned, the most important discussion results of which will find their way into the publication.