Title: Making Sense of US/China Cross-cultural Attitudes Toward Medical Professionalism
Lecturer: Kirk L. Smith (Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, Peking University; and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, School of Public Health, Houston, Texas)
Chairperson: YAN Qingshan (Professor, Department of philosophy, East China Normal University)
Date: 3 pm, April 23rd, 2015 (Thursday)
Venue: Room 5303, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
As in other societies, medical professionalism in the Peoples’ Republic of China has been rapidly evolving. More recently, a national survey, the first on such a large scale, was conducted on Chinese physicians’ attitudes toward the fundamental principles and core commitments put forward in the Charter. Based on empirical findings from that study and comparing them to the published results of a similar American survey, the authors offer an in-depth interpretation of significant cross-cultural differences and important transcultural commonalities. The broader historical, socio-economic, and ethical issues relating to salient Chinese cultural practices such as family consent, familism, and the withholding of medical information, as well as controversial topics such as not respecting patients’ autonomy, are examined. Here we argue that Chinese culture and traditional medical ethics are broadly compatible with the moral commitments demanded by modern medical professionalism. Methodologically and theoretically -- recognizing the problems inherent in the hoary but still popular habit of dichotomizing cultures and in relativism -- a transcultural approach is adopted that gives greater (due) weight to the internal moral diversity present within every culture, the common ground shared by different cultures, and the primacy of morality. Genuine cross-cultural dialogue, including a constructive Chinese-American dialogue in the area of medical professionalism, is not only possible, but necessary.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer:
Kirk L. Smith, MD, PhD, is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, Peking University; and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, School of Public Health, Houston, Texas.