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Bioethics In Japan And East Asia
Darryl MACER*
* Ph.D., Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba Science, City 305, JAPAN
This paper focuses on bioethics in Japan with comparisons to Asia, and global comparisons. There are three 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. Another 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. A third is interactive bioethics, which include social consensus-a process of interaction with traditions and social dialogue. The International Bioethics Survey performed 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 from an Asia perspective. The topics discussed include attitudes to science; privacy, genetic diseases and AIDS; prenatal genetic screening; assisted reproductive technology; the medical profession and medical ethics; euthanasia; brain death and organ transplants; and education. The future of bioethics and universality are major issues in bioethics in Asia today. The bimonthly Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics is on-line on the Internet providing a forum for Asian bioethics dialogue:
(http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/EJAIB.html).Keywords: Bioethics, Japan, East AsiaT Klin J Med Ethics 2001, 9:70-77
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