"What about China?“ China has already become part of the global quest towards ethical governance of the life sciences and biotechnology. We are not yet prepared to properly assess and engage China as a potential partner in bioethics for humankind.

This talk presented some facts and perspectives on the domestic and international ramifications of the ways in which
(1) China is trying to organise its ethical governance regime and
(2) China is challenging some of the patterns in which Western (in particular US) cultural perceptions, values and established practices, with their attached legal and technical standards, have become bioethical code.

This requires us to (a) contextualise the meaning of laws and legislation in terms of actual impact, implementation, adherence within China; (b) work out differences in the prioritising of ethical stakes and concerns and understand the related policy-mechanism; (c) pay attention to significant regional social, economic and technological development differences within China; (d) take serious the need to generate more adequate insight into the empirical situations in China, including attitudes towards biotechnology and the meaning and value of human life, and (e) reflect upon possible biases towards certain symbolic forms and institutions that have become taken for granted among the, as yet, dominant parts of the world, and which may stand in the way rather than in support of the development of a legitimate and agreeable culture of ethical governance and best practice globally.

This discussion layed the grounds for further asking, what has worked inside and in dealing with China, and what hasn’t, with regards to the question of commodification of human tissue?