The real force of 'procreative beneficence'

This is the first book on bioethics to present a genuine engagement between scholars and practitioners from the East and West, and the first book in the discipline of bioethics for the globalised world of the future. The authors address emerging issues in bioethics, with the aim to set the agenda for the future and focus on new developments and their potential for change. Most studies in bioethics advocating East-West dialogue have either attempted crosscultural comparison, or proposed Eastern philosophical paradigms as a counter to Western ideas. The tacit premise of previous writing on East-West dialogue is therefore a strain of relativism. Simply maintaining a respectful distance from other cultures is no longer sufficient in this era of globalization. The time has come for active engagement with different cultural perspectives, and attentive listening, rather than just hearing them, is critical. The most prominent characteristic of this collection s development derives from how the book was developed. First, the contributors met to discuss and identify cutting edge issues in bioethics. Leading researchers offered primary topic articles (PTA), and then researchers from various countries wrote commentaries to which the PTA authors replied. Authors of the commentaries included leading researchers as well as promising, relatively young researchers. Thus, the book aims to establish not only a cross-cultural dialogue, but dialogue between researchers of different generations.