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Revisiting the Foundations of Bioethics: Prospects of a Sino-Christian Discourse
Becker, Gerhold K., 1943-
Becker, Gerhold K., 1943-
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Abstract
Biomedicine and biotechnology challenge traditional human self-understanding and thus call for a cross-cultural re-assessment of our ethical foundations. Searching for common moral resources, I will chart possible intersections between (secular) bioethics, Christian ethics, and Chinese (bio)ethics. While the cross-cultural discourse on “Western” ethics has typically been based on the assumption that the two moral traditions are incompatible and that alternative projects of Chinese (Confucian) bioethics are justified and called for, the possibility of a fruitful dialogue between Chinese and Christian ethics has been largely ignored. In the absence of a real dialogue its projection is highly speculative, but it may be a worthwhile undertaking in view of a possible “co-operation” towards a new bioethics that can meet the global challenges. Against this background, Chinese (bio)ethicists may be expected to take an interest in an ethical tradition that would otherwise be of relevance only to Chinese Christians. Beginning with sketching out three major challenges to traditional bioethics, I will address the conditions and methodology of a cross-cultural discourse between the Christian and the Chinese moral traditions. On this basis, I will then seek to identify particular conceptions of Christian ethics that may be promising candidates for a critical dialogue with Chinese ethics. I suggest that the envisaged re-assessment of the foundations of bioethics in China could benefit from Judeo-Christian views on human dignity, personhood, suffering, and mortality, particularly, if they could be appropriately translated into the language of public reason.
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2013
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With permission of the license/copyright holder