Abstract

Buddhist bioethics aims to identify and evaluate different bioethical positions advanced in Buddhist texts and traditions. Central to Buddhist philosophy is the concept of emptiness, which means the absence of inherent existence in all phenomena. From this perspective, the idea that anything can be wholly self-sufficient or independent is the primary delusion facing all of us as we pass through our lives. However, if everyone and everything is empty, then how can there be any bioethical discourse or bioethical system? Aren’t the things we ought to do and the things we ought not to do equally empty? If the person is empty, who is there that ought to act this way or that way? To address these questions, this article will demonstrate that a Buddhist bioethics based on the doctrine of emptiness is not only possible, but also, actually, works.