Ethical Reflection On Bile Drainage In Living Bears

The history of using bears’bile in pharmaceutical has lasted over one thousand years. Bile drainage in living bears was recorded in a medical book called Tans Materia Medica in the Tang Dynasty, and was described in Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming dynasty. Therefore, under the drive of many factors, some modern bears’bile products industries make use of the influence of the Compendium of Materia Medica to promote bear bile and exaggerate their efficacy on this basis.This paper cites the event which happened in2012that Fujian Gui Zhentang enterprise applies for listing as a breakthrough point, analyzing the reason of existed living bears’bile and its technology influence on black bears themselves, bear farming, bears’bile products industry and the social public. This paper mainly introduces the influence on the social public of living bear’s bile, that is, a controversial issue which is caused by the application for listing of Gui Zhentang. Contending parties are respectively represented by the China association of traditional Chinese medicine as the supporter and by the animal protection organizations as the opponent. And of course there is also a neutral party. The reason for a stalemate between two parties is that they face an unavoidable environment problem. On this basis, this paper analyzes the conditions of Bile drainage in living bears from the huge economic interests, the distortion of modern consumption idea, the imperfection of legal norms, the unlisted artificial substitutes and the developing technology, as well as the ethical reflection of bile drainage in living bears from the perspective of animal rights. This paper analyzes the ethical reflection on drawing gallbladder from living bears from the perspective of animal rights, including Locke’s theories of kindness, Singher’s notion of animal liberation and Reagan’s assertion of animal rights. And then, this thesis comes to a natural conclusion, that is, black bears also have their rights, so human can’t damage them in order to meet their unreasonable demand.At the end of this paper, the author criticizes bile drainage in living bears from the drawing process, the health and safety of the bears, animals’welfare and the usage of bears’bile products, and puts forward suggestions of protecting black bears, which need the joint efforts of the state, enterprises and the public. Hopefully, the research of this topic can do a little help for protecting black bears.