Becoming Silent Mentors
Buddhist Ethics Regarding Cadaver Donations for Science in Taiwan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14760804 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C J Huang (0000-0001-6480-3249, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 782-804 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religious Ethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0384-9694 • E-ISSN: 1467-9795 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jore.12460 |
| OpenAlex | W4388749343 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 23 |
Since 1995, thousands of people in Taiwan have pledged each year to donate their cadavers to the medical college run by the Buddhist Tzu Chi (Ciji) Foundation. The “surge of cadavers” seems intriguing in a society where ancestor worship continues to be salient. Drawing on my fieldwork in 2012–2013 and 2015, the purpose of this paper is to describe a series of practices involving the transformation of a cadaver into a Buddhist moral subject: the donor, the family, and the medical school engage in various endeavors and rituals involving “emotional practices” to honor the deceased; situate the donation as a “good death”; and fulfill the family's obligations to ancestor worship. I argue what makes the ritual transformation efficacious is the dominant currency of emotional practices. Emotional practices “authenticate” the ritual transformation. The main ethic for commemorating the cadaver donation is not generosity or dāna but equanimity
Archaeology · Buddhism · Donation · Generosity · Honor · Political science · Sociology · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Empathy and Medical Education · History · Law · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Death by a Thousand Cuts
Charisma and Compassion
The Eminent Monk
The Impact of a Gross Anatomy Curriculum With Donor Family Interaction
Bonds of the Dead
Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion
Religion and Charity
The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit
The Ghost Festival in Medieval China
Cadaver Donation as Ascetic Practice in India
Buddhist Ethics
Brain Death and Organ Transplantation
Ritual and Its Consequences
Zen in the Art of Funerals
Are Emotions a Kind of Practice (And Is That What Makes Them Have a History)? A Bourdieuian Approach to Understanding Emotion
Governing Death, Making Persons
The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village
Weeping in a Taiwanese Buddhist Charismatic Movement
Bandits, Beggars, and Ghosts
Impossible Gifts
A life worth leaving
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |