Individuals are inadequate: recognizing the family-centeredness of Chinese bioethics and Chinese health system

J Med Philos. 2012 Dec;37(6):568-82. doi: 10.1093/jmp/jhs046. Epub 2012 Nov 22.

Abstract

This paper is aimed at a critical assessment of the moral framework of the current Chinese health system from a Confucian perspective, by focusing on the debate between the individual directed approach and the family-oriented approach to a health care system. Concerned with the nature and status of the family in communal life, the paper deals with the following questions: to cope with the frailties of material life (including susceptibility to disease), what good is presupposed by human existence and flourishing; why it is the family that serves as the primary locus of bearing and realizing this unique good; and what kind of society might possess the structures necessary to achieve the good thus conceived. All these questions lead to a revision of the theory of justice required in health care, in favor of family health saving accounts as an important institutional guarantee.

MeSH terms

  • Bioethical Issues
  • China / epidemiology
  • Confucianism*
  • Cultural Characteristics*
  • Delivery of Health Care / ethics*
  • Ethics, Clinical
  • Ethics, Medical
  • Family Relations
  • Female
  • Health Care Reform / ethics
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Medical Savings Accounts / ethics*
  • Morals
  • Social Class
  • Socioeconomic Factors