Abstract

Bioethical principles are said to be universal, and this contributes to making bioethics global. Those principles are abstracted from culturally different practices. However, they are intermediate. For example, what underlies the principle of Respect for Autonomy can be Kantian deontology or Mill‘s utilitarian liberalism, and we apply them to concrete problems. That is to say, those principles exist between the basic level of philosophy and the 2 Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 21 practical level of medical practices. The method of reflective equilibrium, which is famous in John Rawls‘ book A Theory of Justice, has two roles. One is to search out the point of equilibrium to find suitable intermediate principles, while the other is to analyze the arguments from the viewpoint of three levels structure analysis. By three levels structure analysis we can judge the structure of arguments as for example the so-called top down, bottom up or a synthesis of the both. Moreover, three levels structure analysis teaches us that the first level is deeply connected with the third, i.e. the basic philosophical level. According to three levels structure analysis, the characteristic of the structure of the arguments in ethical committees or among medical professionals in Japan is, in general, that the third level are seldom explicitly referred to. Researchers of philosophy refer to the third level, but they tend to neglect cultural differences of medical practices, and rarely look back at Japanese traditional thoughts. Therefore, the arguments of medical professionals and philosophers often don‘t meet. It also shows the significance of the three levels structure analysis.