As Americans have debated the pros and cons of the biogenetic revolution, they have raised serious questions about the state of bioethics and biogenetic advances in China. To explore these questions, the Center sponsored the January 22 panel discussion "Chinese Bioethics? An East-West Exchange on Eugenics, Euthanasia, and the New Human Biotechnologies."

He Huaihong of Beijing University described contemporary Chinese attitudes and admitted that many in China’s political and scientific elites support euthanasia and eugenics. China’s moral tradition is, on the whole, much more supportive of eugenics than is the Western tradition, he said, though the morality of such practices is not widely debated by the public as it should be.

Center visiting scholar Jeanne Heffernan responded by asserting that Chinese eugenics and euthanasia practices represent a "frontal attack on human dignity" and a serious threat to "the bonds of human solidarity." It is precisely how we care for the very young, the very old, the sick, and the dying that reveals "our goodness, our character."

Center research associate Eric Brown agreed with Heffernan, adding that the "deep relationship between eugenics and modern Chinese totalitarianism" does not mean that eugenics is permissible within China’s moral tradition. Given the moral vacuum and lack of liberty in China today, he said, the United States must try to counter the coming Chinese revolution in biotechnology with strong "moral leadership in global biogenetic affairs."

Center fellow Eric Cohen, director of the Biotechnology and American Democracy project, moderated the wide-ranging discussion that followed. Participants included Laura Bishop of the National Reference Center of Bioethics Literature, Bian Hongwei of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Adam Keiper of the Center for the Study of Technology and Society, Yuval Levin of the President’s Council on Bioethics, Ellen Sorokin of the Washington Times, Martin Waugh of the Traditional Values Coalition, and Daniel Wright of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.