Foundations of Clinical Ethics in China : Family-oriented Informed Consent: A Confucian Perspective for Contemporary China

Principlism is taken to be the standard bioethical theory in today’s society. Liberal individualist bioethical principles are dominant word-wide. In particular, the so-called four bioethical principles (the principles of respect for personal autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice) proposed by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress have been introduced to China to direct health care policy formulation and clinical medical decision making. But these principles are characterized with robust individualistic features, which do not fit into the moral reality of the Chinese people who hold not only ethical principles but ritual practices (li). This paper argues how this Confucian methodology differs from bioethical principlism, why it cannot be seen as a kind of principlism, and what relations are there between Confucian principles and ritual practices in order to make proper medical ethical decisions in general and informed consent in particular.