Bodies Owned, Disowned and Desired: Japan's Debates about Bioethics

Author of The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan (1986) and Liquid Life (1992), a widely-cited book on the differing perspectives of Japan and the U.S. on abortion, Dr. LaFleur is an E. Dale Saunders Professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. 

His specialty lies in the study of Japan, particularly comparisons between Japan and the United States in the areas of religion, public philosophy and social ethics. He was the first non-Japanese to be awarded the Watsuji Tetsurô Culture Prize. Dr. LaFleur is also a Senior Fellow at Penn's Center for Bioethics.