In the afternoon of April 3, Fan Ruiping, Chair Professor of bioethics and public policy of College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences of City University of Hong Kong, visited our hospital for lecture and exchange on invitation. Geng Jianping, Secretary of the Party Committee of our hospital, Wang Mingxu, Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Medical Ethics, He Xinying, Director of Ethic Construction Office, ethics expert from universities such as Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi Normal University, Xidian University and the Fourth Military Medical University and medical personnel of our hospital participated in the lecture and exchange. The activities were hosted by Editor-in-Chief Wang Mingxu.
On behalf of our hospital, Geng Jianping, Secretary of the Party Committee of our hospital, expressed warm welcome to the visit of professor Fan Ruiping and shared the research significance of medical ethics and its important significance in medical practice with attendees. He pointed out that medical ethics was a compulsory course in the construction of humanistic hospital. Medical personnel, especially managerial cadres, should not only know about bioethics and medical ethics but also apply the knowledge of ethics to medical practice. With theoretical system guiding practical work, it was conducive to providing better medical service and laying a solid foundation for the construction of humanistic hospital.
Then Professor Fan Ruiping gave a special lecture in the title of “Building China’s Bioethics—Virtue Ethics” for one and a half hours. At first, he gave a brief introduction and exposition for universal bioethics, liberalism bioethics and the wild culturism between left-wing multiculturalism and right-wing nationalism. He stated four conditions that good Chinese cultural bioethics should conform to: national correlation, political legitimacy, historical rationality and ethical defense. After introduction in theoretical level, Professor Fan showed the virtue prospect of Chinese cultural bioethics with present medical decision made by the family together in China as an example. Professor Fan explained the rationality of Confucian virtue ethics in social practice of China vividly and humorously by analysis of the problems. Meanwhile, he also pointed out that Chinese cultural bioethics might expand its moral imagination. As for medical decision, traditional Confucian ethics might generate a bioethics system different from that of western countries and it might make contributions to world cultures.
At the ending of the meeting, He Xinying, Director of Ethics Construction Office, gave a concluding speech. From the duality analysis of Confucian virtue ethics explained by Professor Fan, she felt that medical ethics was not an empty theory. It was of practical guiding significance to medical ethics management and medical service to study and research it. From the constitutive rules and regulative rules in virtue ethics, we learned that we should know not only “what to do” but also “how to do it” in medical work, providing methodology guidance for clinical medical service and medical management.
Attendees all said that they had learned a lot from the lecture of Professor Fan and some audiences continued to seek advice from Professor Fan. With complete success of this lecture and exchange meeting, the aims of learning and academic exchange were realized.
