HISTORY OF HISTORY OF Medical EthicsMedical Ethics

A brief history of medical A brief history of medical ethics in Chinaethics in China

The value system of medical ethics in China has a long tradition that can be traced back to ancient times.

As in ancient Greek medicine, the professional values of ancient Chinese medicine arose with the development of medical professionalism itself. In ancient China, “profession” meant one’s duties.

Zhou Dynasty (from 1065-771 B.C.E.)

an independent medical profession and medical system took shape , built around four aspects: dietetic, internal, surgery, and veterinary.

Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.E.) and the Warring States (475-221 B.C.E.)

medicine began to divorce itself from witchcraft (magic) and became an experience-based knowledge and a professional skill .

• In ancient China, folk physicians didn’t have fixed clinics or hospitals but went from one place to another practicing medicine freely.

• They hadn’t formal training and weren’t licensed, but performed their work by their own skills and consciences.

• Ancient physicians paid great attention to prognosis and accumulated rich experience, codified in ancient medical books such as the Canon of Medicine and Classic on Medical Problems.

• By judging whether a patient was curable or incurable, a physician decided whether to accept the case for treatment.

• Medicine should not be offered in six circumstances, namely, to (1) people who have unreasonable arrogance and indulgence, (2) people who appreciate riches more than life, (3) people who cannot even keep body and soul together, (4) people who suffer from interlocking Yin and Yang, (5) people who are too weak to take medicines, and (6) people who don’t believe in medicine but in sorcery.

—Bianque

• the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) Confucianism shaped the core values

of Chinese culture. medicine is a humane art it emphasizes on caring about patients

and on physicians’ self-cultivation in virtue.

Benevolence is the core of Confucian ethics. In Confucianism “benevolence” means, “to love the people.”

Confucianism required doctors to be very cautious and responsible in the course of diagnosis and prescription in order to avoid mistakes that would harm patients.

The Confucian principle also calls for respect for patients.

The principle calls for “universal love,” that is,

to treat every patient equally, regardless of social status, family background, appearances, age, etc.

“Whoever comes to seek cure must be treated like your own relatives regardless of their social status, family economic conditions, appearances, ages, races, and mental abilities.

— Simiao Sun

• For Confucians, morality is grounded in human nature, which is expressed by Confucius as ren or humaneness, sometime simply as benevolence.

• From this origin of morality, some more concrete moral principles spurt out, such as the principles of ren, yi, li and zhi, or principles of benevolence, of justice, of propriety , and of moral consciousness.

• These are major guiding principles for our common lives.

• The leading principle is the moral mind and our concern about the sufferings of others.

• “one must understand Confucianism before one really understand what medicine is all about.”

• With the introduction of Western medicine beginning in the nineteenth century, China’s medical system has changed tremendously.

• A new type of medical system has emerged and a new perspective on professional ethics has gained people’s attention.

• This change has also brought new requirements for doctors, who now are responsible not only for their patients, but also for their hospitals and the whole society.

• Meanwhile, Western theories of medical ethics and professional standards of medicine were introduced into China.

•never being selfish but always ready to help others” have become the principal values of medical ethics.