The Search for an Asian Bioethics

A s i a n B i o e t h i c s R e v i e w D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 8 i n a u g u r a l e d i t i o n 86 The Search for an Asian Bioethics The Family, Medical Decision-Making, and Biotechnology: Critical Reflections on Asian Moral Perspectives Edited by Shui Chuen LEE Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007. 222+vii pp. ISBN 9781 -4020-5219-4 (HB); ISBN 978-4020-5220-0 (e-book) The Way of Asian Bioethics By Michael Cheng-tek TAI Foreword by Hans Martin Sass Taipei County, Taiwan: Princeton International Publishing, 2008. 202+viii pp. ISBN 978-986-7097-86-6 The Context In 1888, that is, one hundred and twenty years ago, in the face of the irresistible coming of and Japan’s passionate turn to the West, a group of Japanese political and moral conservatives advocated that Shinto, Confucianism and Buddhism comprised the “great way”, along which, “like a broad street in Tokyo, princes and ministers, samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants, beggars and outcasts, horses, cattle, dogs, and cats would all together willingly go” (cited in Gluck 1985: 22–23). The advocacy for a great authentic Asian way — a way different from the powerful Western one — is not at all unique to some late nineteenthcentury Japanese only. In fact, ever since the seventeenth century, to maintain Eastern traditions and identity in a modernising world and in the truly historic encounter of Asian and European-American civilisations, there has been a common odyssey for all Asians — from the political and intellectual elite to the 86–94 Asian Bioethics Review December 2008 inaugural edition B O O K R E V I E W 87 B o o k R e v i e w populace — in one way or another, consciously or unconsciously, individually and collectively. How to adequately respond to Western civilisation including its military forces, material goods, religions, social institutions, values, sciences and technologies has been a pivotal challenge in Asia’s modern struggle for survival and development. Numerous social and cultural schemes have been carried out and even more proposals suggested. Among the most prominent approaches are the active learning from the West, the wholesale Westernisation, the radical cultural conservatism, the “Japanese spirit, the Western technology” in Meiji Japan, and “Chinese learning as the structure, Western learning for practical use” in the late Qing China. More recently, there are “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and the “Asian value” models in contemporary China and Singapore respectively. Two extreme and opposing tendencies are Westernisation vs. reviving the ancient ways, “radical anti-traditionalism” vs. the radical cultural conservatism. Actually, the search for the great Asian way has often been a direct reaction to the tide of Westernisation as well as the decline of indigenous cultures in the process of modernisation. As Asia is re-assuming its due role on the world stage in this age of further and further globalisation, the grand historic search continues, and is becoming even more urgent. Bioethics has been rapidly evolving in Asia since the 1980’s. However, most bioethical undertakings have been pursued under the more conventional term of medical ethics, which has had a long history in almost all Asian societies. As a still emerging new field, bioethics nevertheless has an apparent American origin and displays an un-bashful Western dominion. To search for an Asian bioethics has been and will continue to be a strong and persistent trend in bioethics in Asia, not only as an academic discipline but also as a social practice. Two Important Contributions The two volumes reviewed here manifest the most recent achievements of this search for an Asian bioethics as an intellectual endeavour. Very informative and thought-provoking, they are the results of many years’ labour and offer important contributions to bioethics in Asia and the world. The editor of the first book and the author of the second are two pioneering and eminent bioethicists in Taiwan, a fascinating island where the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures has borne some enviable fruits. The Family, Medical Decision-Making, and Biotechnology: Critical Reflections...