The SAGE Handbook of Modern Japanese Studies by James D Babb

Author:James D Babb [Babb, James D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Reference, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Social Science
ISBN: 9781412962353
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2014-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

17 Bioethics and Medico-legal Issues in Japan

Michael D. Fetters

Overview

Ascension into the world's spotlight for its excellent health care outcomes and highly advanced technology also aroused attention to Japan in the realm of biomedical ethics because of very different cultural values. Furthermore, different legal systems and social institutions, particularly in the multidisciplinary field of biomedical ethics, make for rich comparisons, discussions, and inquiries. Though not a unanimous position among scholars, Japan's long history of feudalism appears to have influenced the physician paternalism and views about professionalism that dominated for the bulk of the twentieth century (Nishigori, Harrison, Busari & Dornan, 2014). The early emergence in the modern bioethics movement in North America of the four principles approach to medical ethics – respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice as popularized by Beauchamp and Childress (Beauchamp & Childress, 1994), was awkward and difficult to embrace in Japan (Hoshino, 1997). One early observer in the modern bioethics era described the status quo in the 1980s as being dominated by values of harmony and consensus, and avoidance of conflict or controversy (Feldman, 1985). Initially more reactive to the precepts of the North American paradigm of medical ethics (Hoshino, 1997), biomedical ethics in Japan has emerged increasingly to challenge North American and absolutist notions about biomedical ethics, and help shape global thinking in non-Western cultures about the most ethical approaches (Akabayashi, Slingsby & Kai, 2003). Given the interdisciplinary nature of medical ethics, the following discussion draws from various fields – anthropology, law, and medicine – to highlight several issues and events that have shaped medical ethics in Japan. The reader will get a flavor for this difference by looking at the principles of medical ethics espoused by the Japan Medical Association (Table 17.1). While making no claim as to being systematic, this chapter does cover many key issues and discussions that have emerged as central to biomedical ethics in Japan. The reader will notice a predominance of discussion and debate about end-of-life issues with relatively little emphasis on beginning-of-life issues that to this observer reflects proportionately ethics discussions in Japan.

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