Confucian Bioethics

by Fan, Ruiping

• ISBN13: 9780792357230
• ISBN10: 079235723X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

This volume explores Confucian views regarding the human body, health, virtue, suffering, suicide, euthanasia, 'human drugs,' human experimentation, and justice in health care distribution. These views are rooted in Confucian metaphysical, cosmological, and moral convictions, which stand in contrast to modern Western liberal perspectives in a number of important ways. In the contemporary world, a wide variety of different moral traditions flourish; there is real moral diversity. Given this circumstance, difficult and even painful ethical conflicts often occur between the East and the West with regard to the issues of life, birth, reproduction, and death. The essays in this volume analyze the ways in which Confucian bioethics can clarify important moral concepts, provide arguments, and offer ethical guidance. The volume should be of interest to both general readers coming afresh to the study of bioethics, ethics, and Confucianism, as well as for philosophers, ethicists, and other scholars already familiar with the subject.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Towards a Confucian Bioethics	1	(26)
Ruiping Fan
PART I / BODY, HEALTH AND VIRTUE
Confucian Virtues and Personal Health	27	(18)
Peimin Ni
The Neo-Confucian Concept of Body and its Ethical Sensibility	45	(24)
Ellen Y. Zhang
PART II / SUICIDE, EUTHANASIA AND MEDICAL FUTILITY
Confucian Views on Suicide and Their Implications for Euthanasia	69	(34)
Ping-Cheung Lo
Reflections on the Dignity of Guan Zhong: A Comparison of Confucian and Western Liberal Notions of Suicide	103	(24)
George Khushf
A Confucian Ethic of Medical Futility	127	(40)
Edwin Hui
PART III / ``HUMAN DRUGS'' AND HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION
``Human Drugs'' in Chinese Medicine and the Confucian View: An Interpretive Study	167	(40)
Jing-Bao Nie
Interpreting Strange Practices	207	(4)
Ronald A. Carson
A Confucian Reflection on Experimenting with Human Subjects	211	(24)
Xunwu Chen
PART IV / JUST HEALTH CARE AND THE CONFUCIAN TRADITION
The Confucian Filial Obligation and Care for Aged Parents	235	(22)
Qingjie Wang
Just Health Care, the Good Life, and Confucianism	257	(28)
Ruiping Fan
Chinese Glossary	285	(14)
Notes on Contributors	299	(2)
Index of Chinese Terms	301	(4)
Index	305