Akiba Etsuko
Department of Business Law, Faculty of Economy, University of Toyama.
Nihon Rinsho. 2010 Dec;68(12):2234-8.
A trend observed since the 1980s in the Japanese academic scene is the overturning of Hippocratic ethics by American individualistic bioethics. However, the Japanese ethos is more sympathetic to personalistic bioethics rooted in Hippocratic ethics, which assumes the universal view of the 'interdependent self' clearly marked off from the 'independent self' specific to American culture. In Japan, organ transplantation from brain-dead donors is promoted despite the lack of consensus on whether brain death signifies death of the individual. From the viewpoint of personalistic bioethics, this situation is problematic because it violates the dictum primum non nocere of the Hippocratic Oath. We should therefore first establish consensus on brain death and then promote a 'culture of donation' based on human dignity.
自20世纪80年代以来在日本学术界观察到的一个趋势是，美国个人主义生物伦理颠覆了希波克拉底伦理。然而，日本的民族精神更倾向于植根于希波克拉底伦理的个人主义生物伦理，这种伦理假定了“相互依存的自我”的普遍观点，这与美国文化特有的“独立自我”截然不同。在日本，尽管对于脑死亡是否意味着个体死亡缺乏共识，但来自脑死亡供体的器官移植仍在推进。从个人主义生物伦理的角度来看，这种情况是有问题的，因为它违反了希波克拉底誓言中的“首要之务，不伤害”这一格言。因此，我们应该首先就脑死亡达成共识，然后基于人类尊严促进一种“捐赠文化”。
