Abstract

The paper discusses neo-Socratic dialogue as a participatory method to tackle bioethics, focusing on the field of new medical biotechnologies. Recent sociological research has investigated the role of so called ethics committees in the field of the new biotechnologies, approaches of participatory technology assessment and moral communication in bioethical controversies. The paper gives a brief overview about this research and the deficiencies of these approaches. Neo-Socratic dialogue is presented as a method to overcome at least some of these shortcomings. To proof this statement the paper gives details about two international research projects which used Neo-Socratic Dialogues to discuss ethical questions with different groups of stakeholders. One project was about the ethics of xenotransplantation, the second one on ethical problems of genetic counseling. In both projects neo-Socratic Dialogue was used as a form of intervention and to evaluate the NSD as a transdisciplinary tool for dialogue and problem solving, as well as means for participatory policy making involving relevant stakeholders. The paper presents results of the neo-Socratic Dialogues and the accompanying sociological research on the effects of the talks. In the final part the chances and limits of neo-Socratic Dialogues in the field of bioethics will be resumed