Bioethics and Moral Content: National Traditions of Health Care Morality

Is there only one bioethics? Is a global bioethics possible? Or, instead, does one encounter a plurality of bioethical approaches shaped by local cultural and national traditions? Some thirty years ago a field of applied ethics emerged under the rubric `bioethics'. Little thought was given at the time to the possibility that this field bore the imprint of a particular American set of moral commitments. This volume explores the plurality of moral perspectives shaping bioethics. It is inspired by Kazumasa Hoshino's critical reflections on the differences in moral perspectives separating Japanese and American bioethics. The essays include contributions from Hong Kong, China, Japan, Texas, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. The volume offers a rich perspective of the range of approaches to bioethics. It brings into question whether there is unambiguously one ethics for bioethics to apply.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
Bioethics in the Plural: An Introduction to taking Global Moral Diversity Seriously.- I / Physician Virtue and National Traditions.- The Physician: Professional or Entrepreneur.- The Physician-Patient Relationship and Individualization of Treatment from the View of Traditional Chinese Medical Practice.- II / Medical Technologies and National Bioethics.- Medical Technologies and Universal Ethics in Transcultural Perspective.- Brain Death, Pregnancy and Cultural Reluctance toward Scientific Rationalism.- Bioethics in Italy up to 2002: An Overview.- Development and Identity of Swiss Bioethics.- III / Death, Culture, and Moral Difference.- Death with Dignity: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in the United States and Japan.- Euthanasia, Individual Choice and the Family: A Hong Kong Perspective.- Dissensus in the Face of a Passion for Consensus: How the Japanese and the Germans Could Still Understand One Another.- IV / Global Bioethics and Its Critics.- Moral Diversity and Bioethics Consultation.- The Challenge of Doing International Bioethics.- Taking Moral Diversity Seriously: A Discussion of the Foundations of Global Bioethics.- Coveting an International Bioethics: Universal Aspirations and False Promises.- Reconstructionist Confucianism and Bioethics: A Note on Moral Difference.- Notes on Contributors.