Recent advances in biomedical technology have stimulated a surge of interest in death and bioethical issues such as abortion, cloning, euthanasia, organ transplantation, and assisted suicide. As the human lifespan lengthens and the time between old age and death increases, these issues take on renewed urgency. In this crosscultural study, these issues are examined from Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist perspectives.
Questions regarding death and the ephemeral nature of life and individual identity have been preeminent in Buddhism for centuries. The interpretation of Indian Buddhist ideas in the cultural and philosophical environments in China and Tibet produced unique ideas about consciousness, death, and moral personhood.
This study examines Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan Buddhist attitudes toward death, rebirth, and the intermediate state between death and rebirth; and then (a) discusses bioethics from a Buddhist comparative perspective and (b) suggests ways that these ideas can enrich and expand contemporary bioethical dialogue.
