Il mondo della vita e il mondo della legge. Le situazioni limite nella bioetica = The world of life and the world of law. Limit situations in bioethics

Abstract

This article examines the tension between the Lebenswelt and legal regulation through a phenomenological reading of contemporary bioethical issues. Drawing on Edmund Husserl’s concept of the life-world, it argues that law cannot be reduced to the technical administration of social change without losing sight of the existential structures that ground human life. Focusing on medically assisted reproduction, and in particular heterologous fertilization, the paper critically discusses the limits of purely legal reasoning when confronted with questions of birth, parenthood, embodiment, and human dignity. It contends that phenomenology provides a necessary critical framework for assessing the ethical implications of biomedical innovations beyond their juridical legitimacy.