Confucian Bioethics (Philosophy and Medicine Book 61)

This volume explores Confucian views regarding the human body, health, virtue, suffering, suicide, euthanasia, `human drugs,’ human experimentation, and justice in health care distribution. These views are rooted in Confucian metaphysical, cosmological, and moral convictions, contrasting modern Western liberal perspectives in several essential ways. In the contemporary world, various moral traditions flourish; there is genuine moral diversity. Given this circumstance, challenging and even painful ethical conflicts often occur between the East and the West with regard to the issues of life, birth, reproduction, and death. The essays in this volume analyze how Confucian bioethics can clarify important moral concepts, provide arguments, and offer ethical guidance. The volume should be of interest to both general readers coming newly to the study of bioethics, ethics, and Confucianism, as well as to philosophers, ethicists, and other scholars already familiar with the subject.