Neuroethics in Taiwan: Could There Be a Confucian Solution?

Abstract

Latecomers to neuroscience, Taiwanese scientists and humanities scholars have yet to develop a distinctive discourse of neuroethics. It is important to involve the public in the discussion of science policy early on, so the results of a survey of attitudes toward the establishment of a brain bank in Taiwan are used here to explore Taiwanese thinking about the brain. Finally, the possibility of developing a Confucian neuroethic is discussed as an alternative to Western approaches.

Keywords:

• Taiwan
• neuroethics
• Confucian
• policy
• brain bank
• survey

Acknowledgments

We thank Walter Glannon, Daiwie Fu, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. We are grateful to Terrence Hua Tai for his warm encouragement to us during the development of the research ideas. Finally, we thank the Taiwan National Science Council (grant 99-2410-H-002-137-MY3) and the Taipei City Government (grant 96002-62-060) for sponsoring parts of the research work.