Ancient Chinese medical ethics and the four principles of biomedical ethics.
The four principles approach to biomedical ethics (4PBE) has, since the 1970s, been increasingly developed as a universal bioethics method. Despite its wide acceptance and popularity, the 4PBE has received many challenges to its cross-cultural plausibility. This paper first specifies the principles and characteristics of ancient Chinese medical ethics (ACME), then makes a comparison between ACME and the 4PBE with a view to testing out the 4PBE's cross-cultural plausibility when applied to one particular but very extensive and prominent cultural context. The result shows that the concepts of respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice are clearly identifiable in ACME. Yet, being influenced by certain socio-cultural factors, those applying the 4PBE in Chinese society may tend to adopt a "beneficence-oriented", rather than an "autonomy-oriented" approach, which, in general, is dissimilar to the practice of contemporary Western bioethics, where "autonomy often triumphs".
Tsai
D F
DF
University of Manchester.
D032721:Adult Children; D000533:Altruism; D026686:Beneficence; D002681:China; D032903:Confucianism; D003469:Culture; D028663:Ethical Theory; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005190:Family; D005610:Freedom; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations; D026706:Paternalism; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D028662:Principle-Based Ethics; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012072:Religious Philosophies; D012935:Social Justice; D012945:Social Values; D035502:Trust; D026712:Value of Life; D028722:Virtues; D035862:Vulnerable Populations