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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Towards a Confucian virtue bioethics: reframing Chinese medical ethics in a market economy.

This essay addresses a moral and cultural challenge facing health care in the People's Republic of China: the need to create an understanding of medical professionalism that recognizes the new economic realities of China and that can maintain the integrity of the medical profession. It examines the rich Confucian resources for bioethics and health care policy by focusing on the Confucian tradition's account of how virtue and human flourishing are compatible with the pursuit of profit. It offers the Confucian account of the division of labor and the financial inequalities this produces with special attention to China's socialist project of creating the profession of barefoot doctors as egalitarian peasant physicians and why this project failed. It then further develops the Confucian acknowledgement of the unequal value of different services and products and how this conflicts with the current system of payment to physicians which has led to the corruption of medical professionalism through illegal supplementary payments. It further gives an account the oblique intentionality of Confucian moral psychology that shows how virtuous persons can pursue benevolent actions while both foreseeing profit and avoiding defining their character by greed. This account of Confucian virtue offers the basis for a medical professionalism that can function morally within a robustly profit-oriented market economy. The paper concludes with a summary of the characteristics of Confucian medical professionalism and of how it places the profit motive within its account of virtue ethics.

Beneficence↗
PubMed1995

Chinese Confucian culture and the medical ethical tradition.

The Confucian culture, rich in its contents and great in its significance, exerted on the thinking, culture and political life of ancient China immense influences, unparalleled by any other school of thought or culture. Confucian theories on morality and ethics, with 'goodness' as the core and 'rites' as the norm, served as the 'key notes' of the traditional medical ethics of China. The viewpoints of Confucianism on benevolence and material interests, on good and evil, on kindheartedness, and on character cultivation were all inherited by the medical workers and thus became prominent in Chinese traditional medical ethics. Hence, it is clear that the medical profession and Confucianism have long shared common goals in terms of ethics. Influenced by the excellent Confucian thinking and culture, a rather highly-developed system of Chinese traditional medical ethics emerged with a well-defined basic content, and the system has been followed and amended by medical professionals of all generations throughout Chinese history. This system, just to mention briefly, contains concepts such as the need: to attach great importance to the value of life; to do one's best to rescue the dying and to heal the wounded; to show concern to those who suffer from diseases; to practise medicine with honesty; to study medical skills painstakingly; to oppose a careless style of work; to comfort oneself in a dignified manner; to respect local customs and to be polite; to treat patients, noble or humble, equally, and to respect the academic achievements of others, etc. Of course, at the same time, Confucian culture has its own historical and class limitations, which exerted negative influences on traditional medical ethics. Now, if we are to keep up with the development of modern medicine, a serious topic must be addressed. That is how to retain the essence of our traditional medical ethics so as to maintain historic continuity and yet, at the same time, add on the new contents of medical ethics so as to incorporate modern features into our system. Therefore, when trying to reform medical practice in China, we are faced with the urgent need to inherit and promulgate the essence of Confucian ethics--discarding its obsolete concepts--while at the same time building up the new medical ethics that can meet the requirements of the outside world and the future.

Beneficence↗
PubMed1990

Understanding the culture and behaviour of East Asians--a Confucian perspective.

The economic miracle of East Asia is followed by the emergence of a new common identity in Confucianism among the nations in the region. Being the predominant cultural determining force in East Asia, Confucianism has deeply influenced East Asian behaviour. Three behavioural traits in East Asians are discussed. First, the East Asian's lack of "personality" is traced to the Confucian social institution of Li-rules of propriety. Second, the East Asian's lack of principled moral thinking is linked to the dyadic, relation-based character of the Confucian ethic, its lack of hypothetical reasoning and its hierarchical view of human relationships. Third, the East Asian's lack of assertiveness is rooted in the Confucian ideal of man as a reflection of harmony in the cosmos and the Confucian ideal of society as based on the fulfillment of duties rather than the assertion of rights. The implications of these Confucian traits suggest the need to re-formulate Western conceptions of and approaches to East Asian behaviour.

Asia↗
PubMed1999

The Confucian relational concept of the person and its modern predicament.

The Confucian relational concept of the person has been proposed as an epistemically more cogent and ethically more attractive alternative to that of liberal individualism. Two arguments are raised against this proposal without defending liberal individualism. Ethically, Confucianism is vitiated by certain unattractive features that cannot be removed without reducing the Confucian relational concept of the person to an abstract and not very helpful notion of human relatedness. Epistemically, Confucianism commits the essentialist fallacy of treating its own concept of human relations as reflecting the nature of things. In view of these limitations, the Confucian relational concept of the person does not provide a viable framework for dealing with social issues including bioethics.

Bioethics↗
PubMed2004

Overcoming the Confucian psychological barrier in government cyberspace.

The Confucian tradition still dictates the behavior of many people in East Asian countries such as South Korea. Even in e-mail communication, people try their best to show signs of respect which is required by the Confucian tradition. This psychological barrier can be detrimental to the development of democracy as people are educated not to challenge opinions of elders or bosses. After a long military dictatorship, South Korea has emerged as a newly democratized nation where the Confucian tradition is less emphasized. However, this tradition dies hard, and citizens are still afraid of offending government officials who have the power to affect lives of citizens. In light of creating a more democratic society, the e-government project has been implemented, and one of the features of cyber-government is to give citizens a place in cyberspace to express their concerns. Even though citizens have to use their real names, it is found that those who wrote messages in the bulletin board of the city of Seoul government's web pages tend not to use terms that are often used in e-mails for the purpose of expressing respect. A survey was conducted, and results show that people were able to overcome the Confucian psychological barrier in government cyberspace. Self-efficacy is proposed to explain this phenomenon.

Communication↗
PubMed2002

Reconstructionist Confucianism and health care: an Asian moral account of health care resource allocation.

In this article, I offer an abridged reconstruction of the foundational elements of Confucian moral commitments, which, I will argue, still provide the background moral substance for moral reflection in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Korea. The essay presents implications of Confucianism for establishing an appropriate health care system and critically assesses the features of current health polices in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The goal is to offer a family-oriented, non-individualist account of resource allocation that takes family authority and responsibility seriously.

Bioethics↗
PubMed2004

Truth telling in medicine: the Confucian view.

Truth-telling to competent patients is widely affirmed as a cardinal moral and biomedical obligation in contemporary Western medical practice. In contrast, Chinese medical ethics remains committed to hiding the truth as well as to lying when necessary to achieve the family's view of the best interests of the patient. This essay intends to provide an account of the framing commitments that would both justify physician deception and have it function in a way authentically grounded in the familist moral concerns of Confucianism. It reflects on the moral conditions and possibilities for sustaining a Confucian understanding of truth-telling and consent in mainland China.

China↗
PubMed2001

How should doctors approach patients? A Confucian reflection on personhood.

The modern doctor-patient relationship displays a patient-centred, mutual-participation characteristic rather than the former active-passive or guidance-cooperation models in terms of medical decision making. Respecting the wishes of patients, amounting to more than mere concern for their welfare, has become the feature central to certain modern bioethics theories. A group of ethical principles such as respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice has been proposed by bioethicists and widely adopted by many medical societies as an ethical guide to how doctors, in their daily practice, should treat their patients. However, seeing patients as persons who are rational, self-conscious beings capable of valuing their own lives, and who are consequently entitled to the liberty and rights to choose for themselves, is in general the backbone of Western bioethical principles. Since Confucian philosophy has long been a representative of the East-Asia cultural tradition and Confucian bioethics has recently been developed as a theory of applied ethics, examining Confucius's idea of "persons" may shed some light on the current bioethical debates. Confucius's concept of persons, which is best interpreted via his theories of "chun-tze", (the morally ideal person) encapsulating a two-dimensional approach, (the "autonomous person" and the "relational person"), provides a more comprehensive model regarding what a person is and how he/she should be treated. This two-dimensional approach sees a person not only as a rational, autonomous agent but also as a relational, altruistic identity whose self actualisation involves incessant participating in and promoting of the welfare of his fellow persons. Hence this may balance the current bioethical trend whereby "respect for autonomy" often triumphs.

Altruism↗
PubMed2004

Relationship building in Clinical Pastoral Education: a Confucian reflection from Asian chaplains.

The authors reflect on the intentional model of relationship building in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and its roots in the Western concept of the self as a rational, autonomous, and bounded agent. They compare the Western idea to the Confucian two-dimensional self orientation as relational as well as autonomous, and discuss possible difficulties that Asian students from Confucian background may encounter entering CPE. The chaplains explore implications and suggestions for how CPE supervisors and students may enter into dialogue in order to create mutual understanding and help Asian students translate CPE learning methods into meaningful cultural contexts.

Asia↗
PubMed1999

Confucian ethic of death with dignity and its contemporary relevance.

This paper advances three claims. First, according to contemporary Western advocates of physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, "death with dignity" is understood negatively as bringing about death to avoid or prevent indignity, that is, to avoid a degrading existence. Second, there is a similar morally affirmative view on death with dignity in ancient China, in classical Confucianism in particular. Third, there is a consonance as well as dissonance between these two ethics of death with dignity, such as that the Confucian perspective would regard the argument for physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia as less than compelling because of the latter's impoverished vision of human life.

China↗
PubMed2002

[Influence of Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine].

The academic style of study and thoughts of Neo - Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties improved the innovation of contemporary physicians and their recognition on the research of medical theories, and strengthened the development of determination of treatment based on the differentiation of symptoms and signs. Its related contents, such as taiji, circulation and change of vital energy, substance and functions, and congenital and postnatal etc. also were absorbed as the elements of medical theories. However, there were some negative influences from Neo - Confucianism on the development of traditional Chinese medicine.

China↗
PubMed2003

[The conception of healthcare in Confucianism].

As the founder of Confucianism, Confucius lead a life of frustration and experienced all difficulties. Interestingly, he enjoyed a long life of over seventy years old. Naturally, his viewpoint on healthcare aroused the interests of late-comers He first emphasized the morality, claiming that those kind people can live long, advocated the doctrine of the mean, open-minded and optimism, exercise of the body and mind, dietary hygiene, avoidance of ghost, and taking care of medication. As the important integral part of Chinese traditional culture, Confucianism also yields profound influence on the development of healthcare in China.

China↗
PubMed1996

The origin and formulation of Chinese character: an introduction to confucianism and its influence on Chinese behavior patterns.

Confucianism has had a powerful influence on Chinese behavior and social structure for the past 2,000 years. Some of these influences produce roadblocks to conventional Western psychotherapy and counseling when used on Chinese Americans with traditional values. The Confucianism influence on the Chinese is described with suggestions for psychotherapists and counselors who have Chinese and Chinese American clients.

Asian↗
PubMed2005

Confucian bioethics and cross-cultural considerations in health care decision-making.

This article discusses the similarities and differences between Beauchamp and Childress's principlism and Confucian bioethics in terms of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. The author presents sensitive approaches for culturally diverse groups in health care areas and cautions against dichotomy in cross-cultural studies, which ignores the dynamic nature and intravariations of cultures. As a way of health care providers to become engaged in cultural diversity in nursing practice and research, the author suggests that they do not only have a general knowledge about the theoretical differences among groups through "normative analysis" but also learn to appreciate each individual's particular beliefs and values through narratives of morality. Health care providers as well as legal professionals need to cultivate "cultural humility," which is the willingness to explore the similarities and differences between their own and each client's priorities and values and to develop courses of action with patients.

Asia↗
PubMed2003

Who makes the decision? Patient's autonomy vs paternalism in a Confucian society.

Through the ages health professionals have depended on patients' co-operation and obedience as essential aspects of cure. The Code of Ethics of the American Medical Association in 1848, section 6, stated that "the obedience of a patient to the prescription of his physician should be prompt and implicit..." But A Patient's Bill of Rights published by the American Hospital Association in 1973 said that "the patient has the right to refuse treatment to the extent permitted by law..." At a quick glance, these two statements seem to put these two parties in conflict. The situation could even be more complicated when cultural elements are added to the consideration of who makes the final decision. A survey taken in the summer of 2002 in Taiwan showed that in a Confucian society, the family element often determines the course of decision and the patient's autonomy is overlooked. The head of the family, not the patient himself or herself, usually makes the decision, especially when the medical decision has something to do with a life or death situation.

Confucianism↗
PubMed2006

[Influences of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism on Chinese Medical Formulas in Jin-Tang Dynasties].

In the Jin-Tang Dynasties, when Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism contended, conflicted and well blent, forming a state of mingled thoughts of the three sects. It exerted profound influences on Chinese Medical Formulas and promoted the academic fashion of compiling books about medical formulas characterized by collecting various formulas especially the simple and proved recipes. This plays a role in the formation of the formulas used in the Jin-Tang Dynasties, featuring simplicity, convenience, cheapness, and effectiveness, different from those of other periods.

Buddhism↗
PubMed2002

Learning considered within a cultural context. Confucian and Socratic approaches.

A Confucian-Socratic framework is used to analyze culture's influence on academic learning. Socrates, a Western exemplar, valued private and public questioning of widely accepted knowledge and expected students to evaluate others' beliefs and to generate and express their own hypotheses. Confucius, an Eastern exemplar, valued effortful, respectful, and pragmatic acquisition of essential knowledge as well as behavioral reform. Expressions of these approaches in modern postsecondary contexts are discussed, as are the effects these approaches may have for students who either fit or do not fit the cultural ideal.

Culture↗
PubMed2002

[Influence of Confucian's doctrine of the mean on formulae of traditional Chinese medicine].

The doctrine of the mean is an important and integral part of the thought of Confucianism, which occupied a dominant position for a long time in Chinese history since the Western Han dynasty and exerted a great influence for the development of cultural thought in later ages, including the principle of conduct and behave, the construction of social structure etc. Here the influence of the doctrine of the mean on formulae of traditional Chinese medicine is discussed in order to illuminate that specific historical and cultural background of China were the root of traditional Chinese medicine, whose theory and clinical practice all were affected by these in varying degrees, offering some clue for clinical prescriptions.

China↗