The precautionary principle in public health emergency regime: Ethical and legal examinations of Vietnamese and global response to COVID-19.

Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have been widely criticized for being too delayed and indecisive. As a result, the precautionary principle has been endorsed, applauded, and proposed to guide future responses to global public health emergencies. Drawing from controversial issues in response to COVID-19, especially in Vietnam, this paper critically discusses some key ethical and legal issues of employing the precautionary principle in public health emergencies. Engaging with discussions concerning this principle, especially in environmental law where the precautionary principle first appeared as a guiding principle with objective content(s), this paper formulates the precautionary principle as 'in dubio pro salus', which is about advising, justifying and demanding states to proactively prepare for scenarios arising out of any public health emergency. It distinguishes the precautionary principle into moderate and hard versions. A moderate version largely takes a holistic approach and fulfils a series of criteria specified in this paper, while a hard version either permits restrictive measures to be deployed primarily on a hypothetic basis or expresses an instrumental mentality. The hard version should be rejected because of the ethical and legal problems it raises, including risk-risk tradeoffs, internal paradoxes, unjustified causing of fear and unreasonable presupposition. Ultimately, this paper defends the moderate version.

Nannies Go Rogue? A Call for Research into Nanny-Induced Elderly Abuse in China.

Older people often face varied and vicious abuse from care workers. Situations are often more pronounced for older people who live with additional cognitive or physical difficulties, such as dementia and disabilities, the prevalence of which has been on the rise in China and elsewhere. Recent discoveries of elderly abuse in China, which span from alarming levels of verbal, physical, psychological, financial, to sexual abuse, are all caused by nannies or "bao mu". Different from Western countries, the word nanny is often used to refer to people who offer caregiving help in residential settings at large, regardless of the age of the care recipients. What is also different is the lack of regulations or even rigorous training and evaluation processes for nannies in China: almost anyone could become a nanny-even though a background check is often required for nannies, this process is often highly variable and dependent on the specific labour agencies that nannies are registered with. Yet without structured studies and systematic data, little is known about the extent and severity of nanny-induced elderly abuse in China. To this end, this paper aims to discuss the unique elderly care environment-such as the "721 Rule"-in China, particularly in the post-COVID era, and highlight the critical need for timely and rigorous studies on the potential prevalence and severity of nannies' abuse and neglect of older people.

It's a family affair: Confucian familist philosophy's potential to improve mental health care for ethnic Chinese in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Many ethnic groups traditionally value familism, which emphasises interdependence and the extended family unit. However, Aotearoa New Zealand's health system remains largely individual-oriented, with the implementation of family-centred care remaining inconsistent. This is known to have negative effects on Maori healthcare experiences and outcomes. Our research, exploring the experiences of ethnic Chinese using mental health services in Aotearoa New Zealand, indicated that this could also be a barrier for ethnic Chinese, who have similarly strong cultural links to familism, accessing mental health care. To balance the cultural importance of family involvement with the protection of individual patient autonomy, we propose a moderate Confucian familist approach, encouraging family involvement and participation in individual patients' care, with patients' consent. The approach acknowledges individual patients as interconnected members of a wider family unit, emphasising their reciprocal, mutual responsibility in maintaining a well-functioning, harmonious family. We highlight Whanau Ora as a potential exemplar for a culturally grounded, family-centred approach to mental health care which could be feasibly implemented and deliver positive outcomes. Parallels between Maori and ethnic Chinese cultural views around whanau, community, and collectivism suggest a Kaupapa Maori approach could also be beneficial to Aotearoa New Zealand's ethnic Chinese populations. However, ethnic Chinese lack the specific legal obligations empowering the implementation of interventions such as Whanau Ora. This is an obstacle which remains to be addressed before mental health services which are sensitive to the needs of ethnic Chinese or of other ethnicities can be effectively implemented.

The Vulnerability of Rural Migrants Under COVID-19 Quarantine in China and its Global Implications: A Socio-Ethical Analysis.

Despite the role of public health interventions in controlling disease transmission and protecting the public during the COVID-19 emergency, the implementation of quarantine restrictions has raised serious ethical concerns, especially in relation to the well-being of vulnerable populations. Drawing on the lived experiences of rural Chinese migrants who are subject to pandemic control, the authors highlight their inadequate capacities to manage the risks associated with the pandemic and adjust to quarantine restrictions. Informed by an ethical discourse of vulnerability, we show that underpinning this group's deficient coping strategies is a range of detrimental social structures and institutions that have developed under the persistent rural-urban divide in China. These structural constraints and pathologies expose rural migrants to serious risks and uncertainties while depriving them of the means and resources necessary to protect their own interests in the process of complying with quarantine restrictions. Understanding the plight of rural Chinese migrants as a structural problem also has implications for the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We further suggest a need for state intervention to mitigate structural deficiencies and empower the vulnerable during the COVID-19 era.

"There is a huge need, and it's growing endlessly": perspectives of mental health service providers to ethnic Chinese in Aotearoa New Zealand.

AIM: Little is known about the experiences of ethnic Chinese accessing mental health services in Aotearoa New Zealand, resulting in uncertainty around their service preferences, and facilitators or barriers to their mental health help-seeking. This paper investigated the experiences of providers of specific mental health services for ethnic Chinese in Aotearoa, their opinions regarding their patients' experience, and their suggestions to improve the system. METHOD: Sixteen health professionals with experience and expertise delivering mental health services for ethnic Chinese were interviewed at 12 organisations across Aotearoa. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using general inductive methods and thematic analysis. RESULTS: Practitioners' experiences revolved heavily around cultural brokerage, which is vital for culturally appropriate care, but this is time-consuming and receives little formal support. Practitioners thought the patient experience was inadequate, with a lack of language- and culturally appropriate services leading to delays in help-seeking. Practitioners' suggestions for system improvement included increasing resourcing for research, and for expanding the availability of language and culturally appropriate services. CONCLUSION: Current mental health service provision is inadequate for ethnic Chinese seeking help in Aotearoa, and is causing harm by delaying mental health help-seeking. Decisive Government leadership and deeper collaboration between non-Government organisations (NGOs) will be key to improving mental health service accessibility and outcomes.

Gendered caregiving and structural constraints: An empirical ethical study.

BACKGROUND: The pressing issue of aged care has made gendered caregiving a growing subject of feminist bioethical enquiry. However, the impact of feminism on empirical studies in the area of gendered care in Chinese sociocultural contexts has been less influential. OBJECTIVES: To examine female members' lived experiences of gendered care in rural China and offer proper normative evaluation based on their experiences. RESEARCH DESIGN: This article adopted an empirical ethical approach that integrates ethnographical investigation and feminist ethical inquiry. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: This article focused on three cases of gendered caregiving for sick older members collected from a 6-month fieldwork conducted in a primary hospital in rural China. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION: Approval was obtained from the university ethics committee. FINDINGS: The empirical work highlights caregivers' voices of weiqu (a sense of unfairness) resulting from their constrained choice when being pressured to engage in caregiving, which is associated with a disadvantageous socio-institutional and structural backdrop in current rural China. Informed by the conception of structural injustice, the normative analysis of this article traced various forms of social norms, structural deficiencies and ageing welfare institutions, as they intertwine and transmit into additional care deficiencies against rural families and their female caregivers. CONCLUSION: This article identified the constraint of gender hierarchy and its intersection with external social structure that exacerbate gendered oppression and exploitation of female labour in rural China. Normatively, this article argues that the current configuration of rural family care, featured by structural impediments and exploration of female labour, is unjust. Some policy recommendations are proposed to empower caregivers and advance care for rural older people.

The summit of a moral pilgrimage: Confucianism on healthy ageing and social eldercare.

To effectively address ageing and develop adequate eldercare needs, among others, new ethical visions are much needed. One of the ways to formulate sound ethical visions for contemporary issues is to reclaim, reinterpret and revive old moral ideas and ideals rooted in different indigenous cultural traditions. Drawing thought, wisdom and inspirations from classical Confucianism, the article offers a Confucian ethical outlook on healthy ageing and social eldercare. The popular perception of ageing in the West as well as China regards old age as a period of inevitable decline. However, Kong Zi (Confucius) treats human life as an ongoing moral pilgrimage, with old age the summit of the lifelong journey. This Confucian ethical view on ageing as the culmination of a lifelong moral cultivation has various important themes. They include the primary feature of learning in healthy ageing, the essential role of social eldercare embedded in the popular Confucian norm 'filial piety' (xiao), intergenerational flourishing and the necessity to respect the rights and dignity of each old person. Such a Confucian socio-ethical vision can not only help identify contemporary failings in the area of eldercare but also generate novel ideas and frameworks to help China and the world to face population ageing and elderly care in a more positive way.

Navigating the path: a qualitative exploration of New Zealand general practitioners' views on integration of care with acupuncturists.

BACKGROUND: Increasingly, many patients believe that a combined approach of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including acupuncture, and conventional medicine is better than either on its own, and more patients now have the desire to discuss CAM with well-informed general practitioners (GPs). However, to our knowledge, the interaction and collaboration between GPs and acupuncturists specifically in relation to shared care have not been investigated. This research explored interprofessional communication between GPs and acupuncturists in New Zealand. This article specifically reports the GPs' viewpoints. METHODS: This study was part of a larger mixed-methods research project. Semi-structured interviews of 14 purposively sampled GP participants were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The data analysis identified both facilitators of and barriers to integrative health care. Facilitators included the willingness of GPs to engage in communication and a recognition of the importance of patient choice. Barriers included the limited opportunities for sharing information and the lack of current established pathways for communication or direct referrals. GPs also highlighted the confusion around scopes of practice in terms of the different styles of and approaches to acupuncture. CONCLUSION: This research contributes to the body of knowledge concerning interprofessional communication and collaboration between GPs and acupuncturists and suggests that while there are significant barriers to collaboration, there is also the potential to impact provider satisfaction and patient well-being. It provides context within a New Zealand health care setting and also provides additional insights regarding acupuncture, specifically through the disaggregation of specific CAM modalities.

Family vulnerability for sick older adults: An empirical ethics study.

BACKGROUND: In China, the conventional family-based ageing care model is under pressure from social transitions, raising the question of whether and to what extent families are still capable of dealing with the care of the aged. OBJECTIVE: This article examines the vulnerability and inadequacy of families to bear responsibility for the care of the aged against a backdrop of socioeconomic transformation and diminishing institutional support in rural China. RESEARCH DESIGN: This article adopts an empirical ethical approach that integrates empirical investigation with ethical inquiry. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: The empirical component of this article focuses on the lived experiences of caring for a wife and mother with dementia in one rural Chinese family, collected from a 6-month fieldwork study conducted at one primary hospital. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Approval was obtained from the university ethics committee. FINDINGS: The empirical study highlights a conflicted family process of managing and negotiating care that indicates the inadequacies and limited ability of families to deal with aged care tasks. In addition, inadequate structures and institutional deficiencies exacerbate the vulnerability of rural families and their inability to offer adequate care. CONCLUSION: Acknowledging the vulnerability of families as ageing care providers, this article calls for a socially supported family care model for rural older people in China and also proposes policy recommendations.

Human Genome Editing and a Global Socio-bioethics Approach.

A global socio-bioethics is called upon to address the ethical challenges arising from the revolutionary gene editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9, which offers the capability to rewrite the human genome. The ethical inquiry Françoise Baylis has undertaken in the book Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the Ethics of Human Genome Editing (Harvard University Press, 2019) operates at individual, societal and global levels. Baylis has not only presented insights on how to practice "slow science" and achieve broad societal consensus through empowering the public, but she also shown what a global socio-bioethics approach can offer for the further development of bioethics.

Why are we hiding? A qualitative exploration of New Zealand acupuncturists views on interprofessional care.

BACKGROUND: In recent years more health service users are utilising complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including acupuncture, for the management of their health. Currently general practitioners (GPs), in most cases, act as the primary provider and access point for further services and also play an important role in integrated care management. However, the interaction and collaboration between GPs and acupuncturists in relation to shared care has not been investigated. This research explored interprofessional communication between GPs and acupuncturists in New Zealand. This article reports specifically the acupuncturists' viewpoints. METHODS: This study formed part of a larger mixed methods trial investigating barriers and facilitators to communication and collaboration between acupuncturists and general practitioners in New Zealand. Semi structured interviews of 13 purposively sampled acupuncture participants were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The data analysis identified both facilitators and barriers to integrative care. Facilitators included a willingness to engage, and the desire to support patient choice. Barriers included the limited opportunities for sharing of information and the lack of current established pathways for communication or direct referrals. The role evidence played in integrative practice provided complex and contrasting narratives. CONCLUSIONS: This research contributes to the body of knowledge concerning communication and collaboration between GPs and acupuncturists, and suggests that by facilitating communication and collaboration, acupuncture can provide a significant component of integrated care packages. This research provides context within a New Zealand health care setting, and also provides insight through the disaggregation of specific provider groups for analysis, rather than a grouping together of CAM as a whole.

Humiliating Whistle-Blowers: Li Wenliang, the Response to Covid-19, and the Call for a Decent Society.

The ethical experience and lessons of China's and the world's response to COVID-19 will be debated for many years to come. But one feature of the Chinese authoritarian response that should not be overlooked is its practice of silencing and humiliating the whistle-blowers who told the truth about the epidemic. In this article, we document the humiliation of Dr Li Wenliang (1986-2020), the most prominent whistle-blower in the Chinese COVID-19 epidemic. Engaging with the thought of Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit, who argues that humiliation constitutes an injury to a person's self-respect, we discuss his contention that a decent society is one that abolishes conditions which constitute a justification for its dependents to consider themselves humiliated. We explore the ways that institutions humiliate whistle-blowers in Western countries as well as in China.

In the Shadow of Biological Warfare: Conspiracy Theories on the Origins of COVID-19 and Enhancing Global Governance of Biosafety as a Matter of Urgency.

Two theories on the origins of COVID-19 have been widely circulating in China and the West respectively, one blaming the United States and the other a highest-level biocontainment laboratory in Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the pandemic. Both theories make claims of biological warfare attempts. According to the available scientific evidence, these claims are groundless. However, like the episodes of biological warfare during the mid-twentieth century, the spread of these present-day conspiracy theories reflects a series of longstanding and damaging trends in the international scene which include deep mistrust, animosities, the power of ideologies such as nationalism, and the sacrifice of truth in propaganda campaigns. Also, the threats associated with biological warfare, bioterrorism, and the accidental leakage of deadly viruses from labs are real and growing. Thus, developing a better global governance of biosafety and biosecurity than exists at present is an urgent imperative for the international community in the broader context of a looming Cold War II. For such a governance, an ethical framework is proposed based upon the triple ethical values of transparency, trust, and the common good of humanity.

Conflict of Interest in Scientific Research in China: A Socio-ethical Analysis of He Jiankui's Human Genome-editing Experiment.

Extensive conflicts of interest (COI) at both individual and institutional levels are identifiable in scientific research and healthcare in China, as in many other parts of the world. A prominent new case from China is He Jiankui's experiment that produced the world's first gene-edited babies and that raises numerous ethical, political, socio-cultural, and transnational questions. Serious financial and other COI were involved in He's genetic adventure. Using He's infamous experiment as a case study, this paper explores the wider issue of financial and other COI in scientific research and healthcare in China, especially institutional conflict of interest (ICOI) and policy-related COI. Taking a socio-ethical perspective, it examines China's state policies and its massive efforts to transform and commercialize scientific research, the lack of policies and oversight mechanisms for regulating COI, as well as major ethical issues arising from COI including the undermining of public trust. Some practical suggestions are offered for institutional reform and institutional development so that COI, particularly ICOI, can be avoided or more effectively managed in scientific research in China.

Weiqu, structural injustice and caring for sick older people in rural Chinese families: An empirical ethical study.

This paper examines caregiving for sick older family members in the context of socio-economic transformations in rural China, combining empirical investigation with normative inquiry. The empirical part of this paper is based on a case study, taken from fieldwork in a rural Chinese hospital, of a son who took care of his hospitalized mother. This empirical study highlighted family members' weiqu (sense of unfairness)-a mental status from experiencing mistreatment and oppression in family care, yet with constrained power to explicitly protest or make care-related choices. Underpinning people's weiqu and constrained choice, as informed by the conception of structural injustice, is the impact of unjust social structures, organized by unfavourable norms, discriminatory social policies and institutions targeting rural populations. By restraining individual choices and capacities in supporting health care for aging populations, these unjust structures create additional difficulties for and discriminations against rural families and their older members. Some policy recommendations are proposed to mitigate structural injustice so as to empower families and promote care for older people in rural settings.

Utilising acupuncture for mental health; a mixed-methods approach to understanding the awareness and experience of general practitioners and acupuncturists.

BACKGROUND: Mental health presents a significant burden of disease and a large, and increasing, number of patients are self-selecting forms of CAM, including acupuncture, as an adjunct, or standalone treatment for the management of their mental health. General practitioners (GPs) play an important role in integrated care management of primary mental health, and in most cases act as the primary provider and access point for further services. However, the interaction and collaboration between GPs and acupuncturists in relation to shared mental health care has not been investigated. This research explores interprofessional communication between GPs and acupuncturists in New Zealand concerning mental health care. The aim of this research was to understand the barriers to communication, and to facilitate collaboration between the two participant groups. METHODS: The project utilised a mixed methods multiphase design, with both qualitative and quantitative inquiry, and involving the convergence of data and analyses. A nationwide survey of 400 GPs and 250 acupuncturists was conducted. Univariate data was analysed using descriptive statistics, which included frequencies and percentages for categorical data. This was followed by individual semi-structured interviews of 13 purposively sampled acupuncturists, and 14 GPs which was analysed using thematic analysis. This design consisted of three distinct phases: quantitative, qualitative, implementation and reflection. RESULTS: Both provider groups acknowledged the complexities of working within mental health care, and supported the development of specific mental health competencies in light of the recognition of the limitations surrounding current mental health care. The unfamiliarity of acupuncture's evidence-base to both provider groups was an identified barrier, yet both groups acknowledged that while practice is informed by the evidence, there are many other factors that also inform clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first in New Zealand to seek quantitative data and qualitative views regarding alignment about mental health management approaches and the use of acupuncture. This has the potential of improving healthcare outcomes through better inter professional communication and by contributing to better trans-cultural understandings on healthcare issues. The results of this research, whilst looking at the communication model between acupuncture and primary health care, will have easily generalizable findings for other necessary interprofessional communication strategies. This is the first time that the role and potential of the relatively untapped resource base of acupuncture within the health sector has been investigated within a New Zealand context.

"Unworthy of Care and Treatment": Cultural Devaluation and Structural Constraints to Healthcare-Seeking for Older People in Rural China.

This paper examines the experiences of seeking healthcare for rural Chinese older people, a population who experiences the multiple threats of socio-economic deprivation, marginalization, and lack of access to medical care, yet have been relatively overlooked within the existing scholarly literature. Based on ethnographical data collected from six-month fieldwork conducted in a rural primary hospital in Southern China, this paper identifies a widespread discouraging, dispiriting attitude regarding healthcare-seeking for rural older members despite the ongoing efforts of institutional reforms with a particular focus on addressing access to health services amongst rural populations. Such an attitude was expressed by older people's families as well as the public in their narratives by devaluing older members' health care demands as "unworthy of care and treatment" ("buzhide zhi" in Chinese). It was also internalized by older people, based on which they deployed a family-oriented health-seeking model and strategically downgraded their expectation on receiving medical care. Moreover, underpinning this discouragement and devaluation, as well as making them culturally legitimate, is the social expectation of rural older people to be enduring and restrained with health-seeking. Simultaneously, this paper highlights the sourc2e of institutional and structural impediments, as they intersect with unfavorable socio-cultural values that normalize discouragement and devaluation.

Geneva Statement on Heritable Human Genome Editing: The Need for Course Correction.

As public interest advocates, policy experts, bioethicists, and scientists, we call for a course correction in public discussions about heritable human genome editing. Clarifying misrepresentations, centering societal consequences and concerns, and fostering public empowerment will support robust, global public engagement and meaningful deliberation about altering the genes of future generations.

Confucian Ethics on the Commercial Use of Human Bodies and Body Parts: Yi (Righteousness) or/and Li (Profit)?

In China as elsewhere in the world, human bodies and body parts have long been used for a wide range of medical and non-medical purposes. In recent decades, China has played a considerable role in some of the public exhibitions of plastinated bodies and body parts, and the commercial trade in organ donations. These contemporary developments have raised numerous challenging ethical and governance questions. In spite of the growing role of China in these, there have been few studies devoted to Chinese ethical thinking that might govern its policies on the use of human bodies and body parts, and in particular on the issue of commercialization. The present study is an attempt to bridge this gap, and concludes that Confucian thinking stresses the primacy of righteousness over profits and utilities. This conclusion is reached directly by drawing on Confucian ethical responses to the peculiar practice of using human body parts, such as placenta and flesh, as drugs in traditional Chinese medicine in imperial China and what has been called "yili zhibian," the major Confucian discourse on yi (righteousness or justice) and li (profit or interest) in its long history. The principle of prioritizing righteousness over profit leads to a general moral opposition to the commodification of human bodies and body parts. While Confucianism may not place an absolute prohibition on any such use, it does require that any commercial uses are made subject to the fundamental moral principles, such as righteousness, as well as adequate ethical governance procedures.