Religious Elements in Chinese Bioethical Discourses : The Sanctity of Person and the Virtuous Community(<Special Issue>Religion and Ethics)

Abstract

This article discusses the religious elements, in a broad sense, which are embedded in Chinese discourses on bioethics. Bioethical theories and discussions so far presented in the West and Japan are based on particular views on the person and the universe, and Chinese bioethics are basically the same. However, in the Chinese bioethical discourses, human persons are prescribed as beings in the "collectivity," such as society, nation, or humanity, and the sanctity of persons is deduced from this "collectivity." The actual contents of "collectivity" are different according to authors, hence they have different assertions and logic on bioethical issues. Though it is not necessarily easy to say whether these features of Chinese bioethics are based on Chinese religious traditions, they seem to be the contemporary expression of Chinese religiousness.