Buddhism and Abortion

230 Pages·1998·20.28 MB·English

by  Damien Keown (eds.)

BUDDHISM AND ABORTION
Also by Damien Keown and published by Macmillan
THE NATURE OF BUDDHIST ETHICS
BUDDHISM AND BIOETHICS
Buddhism and Abortion
Edited by
Damien Keown
Senior Lecturer in Indian Religion
Goldsmiths College, University ofL ondon
Selection, editorial matter, Introduction and Chapter 10 © Damien Keown 1998
Chapters 2-9 © Macmillan Press Ltd 1998
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London WlP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified
as the authors of this work in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 1998 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-14180-7 ISBN 978-1-349-14178-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-14178-4
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
10987654 3 2 I
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
A mis hermanos
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Contributors
X
1 Introduction 1
Damien Keown
Part One
2 Abortion in Buddhist Thailand 11
Robert E. Florida
3 Abortion and Prostitution in Bangkok 31
Cleo Odzer
4 Socio-Medical Aspects of Abortion 53
in Thailand
Pinit Ratanakul
Part Two
5 Abortion in Japan: Towards a 'Middle Way' 67
for the West?
William R. LaFleur
6 'I can only move my feet towards mizuko kuyo' 93
Memorial Services for Dead Children in Japan
Elizabeth G. Harrison
Vll
viii Contents
7 Abortion in Korea 121
Frank Tedesco
Part Three
8 Abortion in the Pali Canon and Early 157
Buddhist Thought
James P. McDermott
9 Buddhism and Abortion: A Western Approach 183
James Hughes
10 Buddhism and Abortion: Is There 199
a 'Middle Way'?
Damien Keown
Glossary 219
Index 221
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the following, without whose assistance the
volume could not have appeared in its present form: Princeton
University Press for permission to use material in chapter five
adapted from Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan by
William R. LaFleur; the Daeyang Research Fund of Sejong
University which kindly provided funding for research by Frank
Tedesco in 1995 which led to chapter seven; Canisius College,
Buffalo, New York, for supporting research leading to chapter
eight by James McDermott with a Summer Grant and
Supplemental Research Grant from the Faculty Research Fund.
On a personal note there are many individuals and institutions
I would like to thank. The Religious Studies Program at
Pennsylvania State University provided a travel grant which
allowed me to present chapter ten at a seminar there in November
1995. The chapter was previously given as a paper at Bristol
University, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, in
October 1995 and I am grateful to staff and students at both
institutions for their comments. I am also grateful to the Spalding
Trust which generously funded a one year visiting research
fellowship at Clare Hall, Cambridge for 1996-7 which allowed me
to complete the editing much sooner than would otherwise have
been possible. I also wish to record my appreciation of the efforts
made by the contributors, who worked hard to produce the
chapters contained herein in the face of other pressing
commitments. It has been a pleasure to work with such learned
and co-operative colleagues.
Finally, thanks are due to Tim Farmiloe, Annabelle Buckley
and Charmian Hearne of Macmillan, and Pat Crosby of the
University of Hawaii Press, for steering the volume so smoothly
into production, and to Jason Lyon for proofreading the final draft.
ix
Contributors
Robert Florida is Professor of Religion and Dean of Arts at
Brandon University, in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. He has
published several articles on Buddhist ethics and is active in a
cross-cultural health care ethics research team involving Canadian
and Thai universities and health professionals.
Cleo Odzer is a researcher and Webmaster for Daytop Village in
New York. Her published works include Patpong Sisters, Goa
Freaks, and the forthcoming Virtual Spaces.
Pinit Ratanakul is Director of the Center of Human Resources
Development, Mahidol University, Bangkok. He is the author of
Bioethics, An Introduction to the Ethics of Medicine and Life
Sciences, and has published widely on medical ethics from a Thai
Buddhist perspective.
William R. LaFleur is Professor of Japanese and the Joseph B.
Glassberg Term Professor of Humanities at University of
Pennsylvania. His many publications include Liquid Life:
Abortion and Buddhism in Japan, and Buddhism: A Cultural
Perspective.
Elizabeth G. Harrison is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona in
Tucson, Arizona. She has published several articles on memorial
services for dead children in Japan and is currently completing a
collaborative book-length manuscript on the same topic with
Professor Bardwell Smith of Carleton College, Northfield,
Minnesota, USA. She is also pursuing historical research on
Buddhist sermons in Japan.
X