2. Definitions. In interpreting this Constitution, the following definitions shall be used:
Bioethics: The interdisciplinary study of philosophical, ethical, social, legal, economic, health care nursing, medical, environmental, ethnological, religious, (and other related) issues arising from biological sciences and technologies, and their applications in human society and the biosphere.
East Asia: The regions which in 1995 constitute China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and their marginal districts that are culturally associated with them.

3. Objective. The objective of the Association is to promote scientific research in bioethics in East Asia through open and international exchanges of ideas among those working in bioethics in various fields of study and different regions of the world. In order to achieve this end the Association will encourage the following aims and projects:
(1) to organize and promote international conferences in bioethics in the region.
(2) to assist the development and linkage of regional organizations for bioethics.
(3) to encourage other scientific and educational work to accomplish goals consistent with the above objectives of the Association.

4. Membership
4.1 Membership of the Association shall be open to all individuals and institutions sharing the objectives of the Association.
4.2 A member of the Association shall be in good standing upon payment of annual dues. the Board of Directors may tentatively set the annual dues at a different rate for members of different nationalities.
4.3 Membership and Annual dues shall be valid unless and until they are rejected by the Board of Directors and/ or by the majority vote of members.

5. The Board of Directors
5.1 The Board of Directors shall be nominated from the membership.
5.2 Institutional or regional members may nominate delegates for the Board, but that nominee, if elected, hold office in his or her own right, and not as a representative of an institution or a region.
5.3 The Board of Directors shall consists of no more than 15 members and no more than 4 members from any one nation state, including at least one from each country included in Article 2.
5.4 The Board of Directors may appoint, or authorize the President to appoint, additional officers, sub-committees, or executive staff to carry out specific tasks of the Association.

6. The Officers
6.1 The Officers of the Association shall be the President, Vice President, General Secretary and Treasurer, They are nominated and/ or elected by the Board of Directors. They should all be members of the Association and be living in an East Asian country under Article 2.
6.2 The President shall preside at all meetings. the President shall be responsible for the general management and the direction of the business of the Association. The President shall have authority to execute, in the name of the Association, all authorized deeds, contracts, or other instruments.
6.3 The Vice-President provides secondary leadership for the Association, substituting for the President when needed.
6.4 The General Secretary shall keep, or arrange to have kept, a true record of the minutes of all meetings.
6.5 The Treasurer shall have custody of the Association's funds, keep full and accurate accounts of the receipts and disbursements, and deposit all money in the name and to the credit of the Association in the depositories designated by the Board of Directors.

7. Amendment of the Constitution
This constitution may not be amended, replaced, or annulled except by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members voting at a secret ballot.

Supplementary Provision 1
This Constitution is initially adopted at the Inaugural Meeting of the Association held in Beijing, the 5th of November, 1995. In this Meeting, President, Vice-President, General Secretary and a few delegates to become members of the Board of Directors, from countries of East Asia, and a few international advisers from other parts of the world were nominated by consensus of the participants in the East Asian Conference on bioethics (EACB'95). this initial Board of Directors would be replaced in a few years by election, and immediately the nomination or election of Officers shall follow in accordance with Article 5 and 6.
This supplementary provision shall be abolished when the Board of directors will be nominated by election.

Supplementary Provision 2
The office will temporarily be placed in Nihon University, Tokyo for the present.

Note the following positions were decided: President - Hyakudai Sakamoto; Vice-President - Qiu Ren Zong; Treasurer - Sang-yong Song; General Secretary - Takashi Fujimoto.