Communitarian bioethics and individual freedom: Comparison

Even in the USA, so-called “communitarian bioethics” has been discussed by Ezekiel J. Emanuel (1991) and Daniel Callahan (1996) in the 1990s. American feminist bioethics has put a special emphasis on caring and relationships. It seems that current bioethics throughout the world seeks balanced development between “individual freedom” and “the value of community and relationships.”

Scholars at the City College of New York conducted a comparative study of US/Japan values in 1988. In their research, students in both countries responded to “the values that they believed best characterize people in their country.” The results were interesting. The top 3 for the USA were “Family,” “Education,” and “Friendship,” and the top 3 for Japanese were “Friendship,” “Peace/Getting Along,” and “Respect.” Both sets of responses look similar and sound communitarian (CCNY 1998). [186/187]


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Cross-cultural Approaches to the Philosophy of Life in the Contemporary World
(2004)
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