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This book examines the implications of Confucian moral and ontological understandings for medical decision-making, human embryonic stem cell research, and health care financing. The book reveals East Asian attitudes on the moral status of human embryos and the morality of embryonic stem cell research that are quite different from Christian and Muslim cultural perspectives. The book also discusses how Confucian cultural resources can help meet the challenges of health care financing.
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THE FAMILY, MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING, AND BIOTECHNOLOGY Philosophy and Medicine VOLUME 91 Founding Co-Editor Stuart F. Spicker Editor H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Department of Philosophy, Rice University, and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas Associate Editor Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Department of Philosophy and Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Editorial Board George J. Agich, Department of Bioethics, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio Nicholas Capaldi, Department of Philosophy, University of Tulsa, Tulsa Oklahoma Edmund Erde, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Stratford, New Jersey Eric T. Juengst, Center for Biomedical Ethics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio Christopher Tollefsen, Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina Becky White, Department of Philosophy, California State University, Chico, California THE FAMILY, MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING, AND BIOTECHNOLOGY CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON ASIAN MORAL PERSPECTIVES Editor SHUI CHUEN LEE National Central University, Chungli, Taiwan A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-4020-5219-4 (HB) ISBN 978-1-4020-5220-0 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springer.com Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2007 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Table of Contents Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shui Chuen Lee xi 1. Medicine and the Biomedical Technologies in the Context of Asian Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Shui Chuen Lee and Justin Ho I. A View from Asia: An Introduction....................................................... 1 II. The Family and its Impact on Bioethics and Personhood ..................... 2 III. Medical Decision-Making and Traditional Conception of the Family .. 4 IV. Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Confucian, Islamic, and Western Perspectives........................................................................ 7 V. Taking the Family Seriously: Confucian Approaches to Health Care ......................................................................................... 11 VI. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 13 2. Confucian Familism and its Bioethical Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ruiping Fan I. Introduction: Why Confucian Bioethics is so Different......................... II. The Features of Confucian Familism ..................................................... III. The Power of Virtue................................................................................ IV. Shared Family-Determination for Health C