Public opinion is seldom influential in determining public policy and there are no effective means used by the public to change policy. The adoption of bioethics and bioethical reasoning is set to transform modern culture, as it leads to the establishment of multi-disciplinary fora which in themselves represent a transformation of society structure. In Japan, for example, there has been concern about bioethical issues such as environmental pollution, suspicion of the medical profession and its paternalism, and the question of brain death. Public discussion of bioethics has only begun in the last few years. The delay is more related to the structure of Japanese society than to any difference between individual person's attitudes in Japan and Western countries.
Many people perceive simultaneously both benefits and risks from science and technology.
The diversity of reasoning exposed in the survey was independent of education or age, and similar diversity of reasoning was found among members of the public, high school biology teachers, and scientists. Bioethical decision-making involves recognition of the autonomy of all individuals to make free and informed decisions providing that they do not prevent others from making such decisions. This is consistent with democratic principles, and the extent to which a society has accepted this is one criteria of the success of bioethics. However, the structured paternalism of some Asian societies is built on the idea that only the views of so-called experts should be heard. It also means that their views should not be questioned.