Medical Ethics in Imperial China: A Study in Historical Anthropology

Abstract

Professional medical ethics and the scholarly study of medical ethics may both have reached the point where they are stymied by a parochialism. They cannot see the alternatives to the Hippocratic tradition that holds that the physician should try to benefit the patient or at least do no harm. Completely unexpected—at least for those who were not familiar with the German original—is an exciting exploration by Paul Unschuld of medical ethics in China of the Imperial period (about 500 BC through the 19th century). A complex and comprehensive treatise, the volume may be difficult reading for those not comfortable with social theory done in what the Germans call the critical perspective. The most comfortable reading of this volume would require knowledge not only of sociological theory, comparative medical ethics, and Chinese history but also a tolerance for the assumption that groups develop their ethics to legitimate pursuit of their self-interest.