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Abstract
The modern advances of medical technology that had been introduced to Asian soil in the early 20th century undoubtedly had challenged the family-based decision-making model but a century has elapsed, this familial decision-making model is still sound in place. In medical ethics, how will the west and the east make decision to a similar ethical dilemma ? In a western society the patient's autonomy is emphasized but in the east, especially those regions being influenced by Confucian teaching, an individual is regarded as a smaller self within a larger self, namely, family, therefore the decision is made from family's perspective because any decision made effects not only patient himself, but the whole family especially when the matter has to do with the issue of death and life.
Even the four principles of medical ethics that was taught in medical schools in Asia in the last twenty some years that gives autonomy a priority in decision-making cannot shake this model.