The Evolution of the Concept “bioethics” in the Dynamics of the Soviet and Chinese History of Medicine

Abstract

The article analyzes the formation and development of the concept of bioethics in the historical context of the Chinese and Soviet reality. The reasons for slow reception of bioethics in the Soviet and Chinese medical communities are considered. Separately, the phenomenon of Confucian bioethics is investigated in the context of its perception in the practice of medicine in China. The basis of the historiographical discourse of the article is a set of works by foreign researchers investigating the problems of bioethics and its adaptation in China, as well as a body of sources related to the development of the Christian discourse of bioethics and the peculiarities of its development in the practice of Russian medicine. The article notes that the American professor H. T. Engelhardt, the author of the concept of Orthodox bioethics, collaborated actively with Chinese researchers engaged in the Confucian tradition of understanding the ethics of medicine. The authors compare the cultural, historical, political, ideological features of the Soviet and Chinese reality aiming to explain the difficulties of evolution and subsequent reception of the concept of bioethics.