Transcultural discussion in bioethics drawn from research experience in China: building up a theoretical and methodological framework for further research cooperation

My article discusses bioethics in transcultural context and builds on an experience of conducting research in China in partnership with Chinese scholars and institutions. Key points are about the creation of ethical committees and their prerogatives, the regulation of experimenting in human and animal, and of donating and transplanting organs. Ethical issues are approached according to an anthropological reading. Three transversal lines for further research are suggested: global/local ethical governance applied to research ethics; implications of transnationalizing and delocalizing research practices with regards to governance; theoretical positioning--conceptual pluralism versus pragmatic pluralism--following actual confrontation to transcultural variations in research ethics. Moreover, this work claims for conceptualizing and implementing an ethics in context while assessing intangible (non-relative) principles based on knowledge production and a global patrimony.