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N:Zb1~)Eibi,Gs' '• :,) T - ~ { , :;,' ,$ v.¥. ' ~ n:zb1~)eibi,Gs' '• :,) t,-. ~ "' ' < ' ' ·,;::t_;, 1/' t· i ·.-....-=$: 1 ~❖ :::: Chinese Moral Perspectives on Abortion and Foetal Life: An Historical Account Jing-Bao Nie, MD(tcm), MA, PhD Lecturer, Bioethics Centre, University of Otago, New Zealand Adjunct Professor, Institute of Ethics, Hunan Normal University, China Abstract It is accepted wisdom that, at the present time as well as historically, the typical Chinese attitude toward abortion is very permissive or 'liberal'. It has been widely perceived that Chinese people usually do not consider abortion morally problematic and that they think a human life starts at birth. As a part of a bigger research project on Chinese views and experiences of abortion, this article represents a revisionist historical account of Chinese moral perspectives on abortion and foetal life. By presenting Buddhist and Confucian views ofabortion, traditional Chinese medical understandings offoetal life, the possible moral foundation ofa 'conservative' Confucian position, and some historical features ofabortion laws and policies in twentieth­ century China, this paper shows that blanket assumptions that the Chinese view of abortion has always been permissive are historically unfounded. As in the present, there existed different and opposing views about abortion in history, and many Chinese, noi only Buddhists but also Confucians, believed that deliberately terminating pregnancy is to destroy a human life which starts far earlier than at birth. The current dominant and official line on the subject does not necessarily accord with historical Chinese values and practices. ) Man [sic] has in fact no past unless he is conscious of having one, for only such consciousness makes dialogue and choice possible. Without it, individuals and societies merely embody a past of which they are ignorant and to which they are passively subject. Raymond Aron (1985, pp.153-154) Wushang ye, Shinai Renshu ye. (Not to harm life in any form is the way and art of humanity.) Mencius Introduction - different views and experiences - exist behind the Chinese Induced abortion is charged with seemingly unsolvable moral, silence on abortion (Nie, 2002, forthcoming). Although the social, and political controversies in the West, including New majority of people in contemporary China, especially many Zealand. It remains one of the classic and most difficult topics well-educated ones, seem to take a permissive or 'liberal' in Western bioethics and moral philosophy. In striking contrast, position on terminating pregnancy, a large number, especially Western scholars (Johnson, 1975, pp. 236-237; Potter and Potter, (but far from limited to) those believing in Buddhism and 1990,pp. 238-239;Rigdon, 1996,p.543,Jennings, 1999,p. Christianity, consider abortion is destroying human life and thus 4 75) report that the same subject - abortion - appears not to be morally problematic. seen or treated as a serious moral issue in contemporary Mainland China and Chinese people appear to be basically silent Partly due to the political and social acceptance of abortion about it. However, appearances can be deceiving. Systematic and the apparent silence on the issue in contemporary China, and in-depth study indicates that a wide range of diverse voices it is usually assumed that acceptance was the case in the past new zealand bioethics journal october 2002 page 15 nzl0itl,etliics ' ' too. For instance, contemporary scholars generally agree that Rather, it aims to provide a preliminary but revisionist historical traditional Chinese, especially Confucian, perspectives on account of Chinese perspective on abortion and foetal life. abortion are very 'liberal' ( see Luk, 1977; Qiu, 1992; Unschuld, 1995; Qiu and Jonsen, 1995). 1 According to this Buddhist, Confucian and Pre-modem Medical view, Confucianism is perceived to tolerate and permit almost Perspectives any kind of abortion and even infanticide because Chinese, Although its frequency is difficult to ascertain, it is Confucians included, hold that the foetus is not a human life, unquestionable that abortion was practised in traditional China and certainly not a human being or person. It is assumed that for centuries for a variety of reasons - from therapeutic most Chinese would agree with the great Confucian Xun Zi purposes, to concealing illegitimate sexual behaviour, to birth (286-238 B.C.E.) that 'human life' begins at birth and ends control. In some cases, attempts to abort were successful. In with death. According to Bernard Luk (1977), in traditional the 'Biography of the Empress Dowager Xiao Muji' of the China laws referred to abortion in two situations: first in Mingshi (Official History of the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644), 'abortion-in-assault' where abortion is induced as a result of we read: 'Concubine Wan was the emperor's favorite and she a physical attack against a woman; and second in deliberately was jealous. She made all the other concubines, whenever procured abortion that results in the mother's death. Although they became pregnant, take medicine to induce abortion' (cited it was a crime to induce abortion by assaulting a pregnant in Ma, 1994, p. 669). In the Nanshi (Official History of the woman, abortion-in-assault was never legally classified as Southern Dynasties, 420-589), we are told that an empress manslaughter or homicide. Luk concludes that, compared to wagered with Xu Wenbei, a physician, about the effectiveness the West, the ancient Chinese took 'a far more flexible and of his abortion techniques. The physician employed situational, and a far less moralistic, approach to the question acupuncture on a pregnant woman and the foetus was aborted. of abortion'. Parents were not prohibited from deliberately In other, perhaps most, cases, attempted abortion did not terminating pregnancy. Therapeutic abortion could be succeed. Again in the Nanshi, in the 'Biography of Xu Xiaoci', recommended in the absence of pressing medical reasons. In we read (Ma, 1999, pp. 668-669): other words, an ancient Chinese woman had much 'freedom' 'to dispose of the content of her womb' 'not because the foetus Xiaoci was still in his mother's womb when his father was considered a part of her body without its own soul or was murdered. At that time, his mother was quite young. viability, but because its life in its organic unity was integrated Intending to remarry, she did not want to be pregnant. So with hers and derived from her' .2 she jumped from the bed to the ground many hundreds of times, and pounded her waist with the club used for Though widely accepted, is the above view about Chinese washing clothes. She also took abortion medicine. But perspectives on abortion and foetal life valid? By presenting the foetus was even firmer [in the womb]. At birth, he Buddhist and Confucian views of abortion, traditional Chinese was given the nickname Yilu (Abandoned Slave). medical understandings of foetal life, the moral foundation of a 'conservative' Confucian position, and some historical In this story, the failure of the attempted abortion was attributed features of abortion laws and policies in twentieth-century not to the inefficacy of medicine and the other methods China, in this article I will show that blanket assumptions of a employed, but to the supernatural intervention of the gods on 'liberal' Chinese attitude on the issue are historically behalf of the child. unfounded. As in Mainland China today, there existed in the past a variety of voices on abortion, not just the permissive The question that directly concerns us is not whether and how viewpoint. So far there are no systematic modem studies on abortion was carried out in traditional China, but how the ancient the socio-cultural history of abortion in China. To undertake Chinese, physicians included, saw the issue of abortion. Was such a inquiry one would need to explore an enormous range abortion treated as a serious ethical problem in China? of materials, including the official histories of the twenty-four dynasties and other classical works, medical books, and Buddhism, along with Confucianism and Daoism, was one of especially literary essays and fiction, unofficial histories, and the three major social-religious-philosophical belief systems local histories. This article by no means constitutes such a study. of traditional China. While there may be a significant page 16 new zealand bioethics journal october 2002 n;-l-,{oetl1ius_- - _--:-} ' , 's, >.,, ' difference in B udd:hist Asian opinions on abortion, Buddhism years - from the time of the early Western Han Dynasty in the in general considers abortion morally problematic, if not second century B.C.E. to the early twentieth century. In definitely reprehensible (see LaFleur, 1992; Keown, 1995, pp. Confucianism abortion may at times be considered morally 91-117). It teaches that taking a life is morally wrong, that permissible, but this is definitely not always the case and the foetus is a form of life and that, therefore, abortion is happens only at some stages of pregnancy. Confucianism, morally unacceptable. along with traditional Chinese medicine, holds that the foetus is a human life and becomes a living human being at a certain Buddhist physicians or physicians influenced by Buddhism stage of pregnancy. in ancient China seemed to take this line of thinking as a given. Zhang Gao's Yi Shuo (Medical Compendium) written in the Let me start my evidence for these claims with an anecdote thirteenth century (during the Song Dynasty 960-1279) is an that has been used by contemporary Chinese scholars as important text in ancient Chinese medical ethics. It addresses evidence of Confucian acceptance of abortion. The text comes a series of moral issues in medical practice by means of twelve from Yuewei Caotang Biji (The Notes from the Reading­ anecdotes. The abortion story illustrates this 'conservative' subtlety Hut) written by Ji Jun, well-known prime minister Buddhist viewpoint vividly. It reads as follows: and writer of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911): In the capital city there lived a woman whose family name There was a physician who was usually prudent and kind.
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