Western Autonomy Vs. Confucian Familism: The Cultural Collision Between West And China Over Bioethical Issues

In this thesis, the author starts by introducing a term—bioethics, interprets thedifferent cultures and values between the West and China that are embodied in specificmedical issues of bioethical domain from the perspective of cross-culture studies, aimsto explain the profound reasons for the contrasting responses or decision-makingbetween Chinese and Western people toward bioethical issues including euthanasia,organ donation, truth-telling, and informed consent. The author initiates the study froma new comprehensive angle by academically establishing the connection betweenbioethics and cross-culture studies， and proceeds the research using culturalcomparative studies, documentation-based synthesis and desk study with the focus onWestern autonomy and Confucian familism to make a thorough and systematicresearch of different attitudes between Chinese and the Westerners concerningbioethical issues.The purpose of this study was to provide some constructive suggestions to dealwith cultural dissensus presented in this thesis and implies that two different culturalentities can be commensurable as long as the conflict or disparity is understood andaddressed within the “field” and the attitude of cultural tolerance is upheld by peopleinvolved.