Overview
- A detailed view of implications of Confucian thought for bioethics
- An introduction to why East Asian medical practice and the norms for human embryonic research are so different from that in North America and Europe
- Provides a detailed exploration of why the concept of the family plays such a central role in East Asian medical decision-making
- A description of why the research ethics debate regarding human embryos is in strong contrast to much of that in the West
- A rich resource for cross cultural studies of the role of the family in East Asian health care
Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine (PHME, volume 91)
Part of the book sub series: Asian Studies in Bioethics and the Philosophy of Medicine (ASBP)
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Table of contents (17 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This volume opens with an exploration of the Confucian recognition of the family as an entity existing in its own right and which is not reducible to its members or their interests. As the essays in this volume show, this recognition of the family supports a notion of family autonomy that contrasts with Western individualistic accounts of proper medical decision-making. There are analyses of basic concepts as well as explorations of their implications for actual medical practice. The conflicts in East Asian countries between traditional Confucian and Western bioethics are explored as well as the tension between the new reproductive technologies and traditional understandings of the family. The studies of East Asian reflections concerning the moral status of human embryos and the morality of human embryo stem cell research disclose a set of concerns quite different from those anchored in Christian and Muslim cultural perspectives. The volume closes with an exploration of how Confucian cultural resources can be drawn upon to meet the contemporary challenges of health care financing.
Reviews
From the reviews:
"The most recent achievements of … search for an Asian bioethics as an intellectual endeavour. Very informative and thought-provoking, they are the results of many years’ labour and offer important contributions to bioethics in Asia and the world. … Growing out from two international conferences in Taiwan organised by the editor, it constitutes Volume 91 of the well-established book series ‘Philosophy and Medicine’ … . have significantly contributed in filling up a huge intellectual gap in international as well as Asian bioethics." (Asian Bioethics Review, December, 2008)
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Family, Medical Decision-Making, and Biotechnology
Book Subtitle: Critical Reflections on Asian Moral Perspectives
Authors: Shui Chuen Lee
Series Title: Philosophy and Medicine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5220-0
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-5219-4Published: 21 June 2007
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-007-8848-0Published: 29 October 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-5220-0Published: 03 May 2007
Series ISSN: 0376-7418
Series E-ISSN: 2215-0080
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 220
Topics: Biomedicine general, Biotechnology, Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging, Philosophy of Medicine, Medicine/Public Health, general, Ethics