Original scientific paper

BIOETHICS IN JAPAN AND ASIA

Darryl Macer ; Eubios Ethics Institute, New Zealand

Abstract

This paper focuses on bioethics in Japan with comparisons to
Asia, and global comparisons. There are two ways to think of
the term bioethics, one is as descriptive bioethics - the way people
view life and their moral interactions and responsibilities with
life. The other is prescriptive bioethics - to say what is good or
bad, what principles are most important, or that people have
rights and therefore others have duties to them. The world
"bioethics" means the study of ethical issues arising from human
involvement with life, and I have called it simply the "love of life".
The International Bioethics Survey performed in 1993 in Australia,
Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines,
Russia, Singapore and Thailand is used as a background to discuss
the issues of bioethics. The topics discussed include attitudes
to science; environmental concerns; genetic engineering;
privacy, genetic diseases and AIDS; prenatal genetic screening;
gene therapy; assisted reproductive technology; the medical profession
and medical ethics; euthanasia; brain death and organ
transplants; and education. The future of bioethics and universality
are mayor issues in bioethics in Asia today. The founding of the
East Asian Association of Bioethics will be in November, 1995,
and the bimonthly Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics
is on-line on the Internet (http://www.biol.tSukuba.ac.jp/
-macerIEJAl B.html).

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

31927

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/31927

Publication date:

1.5.1996.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

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