軍醫生命倫理探析

Exploring Chinese Military Bioethics

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

生物技術在軍事領域中的應用構成了軍醫生命倫理生成的實踐基礎，對生命的本體追問和醫學人道反思則是軍醫生命倫理生成與發展的理論依歸。儘管東西方異質文化的道德差異使得中外軍醫倫理研究各有側重，但在論及軍醫生命倫理時並無本質差異。本文認為，國內軍醫倫理學不能只局限於研究內在品德的培育，而必須要探討不同境遇的倫理抉擇以及倫理困境的道德剖析。注重德性修養的中國傳統倫理與深入考察具體案例的當代西方倫理或許可以在方法論上互相借鑒、互相補充。當下軍醫生命倫理研究的視域主要涵蓋戰地安樂死、戰場器官移植、軍事醫學科研、疫苗使用、突發公共衞生事件、生態倫理等倫理問題。

The modern world faces various military bioethical problems. A series of prominent issues – such as battlefield euthanasia, battlefield organ transplants, military medical research, the use of vaccines, emergent public health crises, and ecological ethical problems – challenge our moral conscience and our cultural commitments, both in the West and in China. Chinese bioethical scholars need to turn their attention to these important but thorny issues and provide ethically appropriate solutions by drawing on their intellectual and ethical resources.

The recent history of military bioethical research in China shows that the character of such research is culture-laden. Influenced by the long-standing Confucian tradition that emphasizes virtue-cultivation, Chinese military bioethical studies have focused on issues such as to how to educate and promote the moral character of military physicians. However, they have overlooked – or at least have not given sufficient attention to – analyses of military bioethical dilemmas and contexts that are needed to develop adequate and feasible ethical solutions to the new problems facing today’s military. This academic situation should be improved to ensure that Chinese military bioethical research moves forward.

It is true that Confucianism is a central moral tradition in China. It is also true that theoretical Confucian morality can be taken as virtue ethics, which emphasizes moral cultivation. However, it is not true that Confucian virtue ethics only focuses on issues of character development, ignoring specific ethical problems or conflicts. This essay takes the perspective that traditional Chinese Confucian ethics (which emphasizes moral cultivation) and modern Western ethics (which focuses on the application of general principles to particular contexts) should learn from each other and offer more comprehensive arguments and appropriate solutions to military bioethical issues. Indeed, Confucian moral practices – rituals (li) – are embedded in the everyday lives of people in general and the activities of military physicians in particular. These rituals provide concrete guidance in particular contexts, but they are not absolute moral rules. Confucianism calls for moral deliberation by exercising the virtues achieved through observing rituals. However, a principle of the middle way is that we should function according to the Confucian way of life. These intellectual and moral resources could be drawn upon to explore Chinese military bioethics.

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