ArticleMedicine, health care, and philosophy2019
Confucianism and organ donation: moral duties from xiao (filial piety) to ren (humaneness).
Article in Medicine, health care, and philosophy, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Learning by Doing: Chinese Male Nursing Students' Experiences of Developing and Demonstrating Empathy When Caring for Patients in the Oncology Wards.Nursing open · 2026Article
- Living Kidney Donations in Israel: The Changing Impact of Religiosity.Journal of religion and health · 2026Article
- Public awareness, attitudes, and motivation toward biobanks: a survey of China.BMC medical ethics · 2025Article
- The Importance of Cultural Awareness in the Management of Heart Failure: A Narrative Review.Vascular health and risk management · 2024Review
- Outcomes of Patients on the Lung Transplantation Waitlist in Korea: A Korean Network for Organ Sharing Data Analysis.Journal of Korean medical science · 2022Article
- The experiences of clinical nurses coping with patient death in the context of rising hospital deaths in China: a qualitative study.BMC palliative care · 2022Article
- Allocation of Donor Lungs in Korea.Journal of chest surgery · 2022Article
- How Does Confucianism Influence Health Behaviors, Health Outcomes and Medical Decisions? A Scoping Review.Journal of religion and health · 2022Article
- A mixed-methods study of emotional support for families of organ donors in Hunan Province, China.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There exists a serious shortage of organs for transplantation in China, more so than in most Western countries. Confucianism has been commonly used as the cultural and ethical reason to explain the reluctance of Chinese and other East-Asian people to donate organs for medical purposes. It is asserted that the Confucian emphasis on xiao (filial piety) requires individuals to ensure body intactness at death. However, based on the original texts of classical Confucianism and other primary materials, we refute this popular view. We base our position on the related Confucian norms of filial piety and ren (humaneness, humanity or benevolence), the tension between differentiated love and universal love, and belief in the goodness of human nature. In light of this, we argue that the Confucian ethical outlook actually calls for organ donation at an individual level, and supports an opt-out (presumed consent) system at the level of social policy. Furthermore, because the popular view is based on a number of dominant but misleading modes of thinking about cultural differences, our revisionist account of Confucian moral duties regarding organ donation has implications for developing a more adequate transcultural and global bioethics. These will be discussed and expanded upon.
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