Bioethics and the Challenges to Its Growth in Africa

Cletus T. Andoh
DOI: 10.4236/ojpp.2011.12012                

Abstract

Bioethics has now become a burgeoning interdisciplinary field of scholarly investigation which has in the past decades migrated from bedside consultations to public policy debates and wider cultural and social consultations that privilege all discourse about everyday life issues. It has made exponential progress in addressing moral issues in science, technology and medicine in the world. In spite of this progress, core bioethics issues, approaches and values are still exclusively Western dominated and largely foreign to most African societies. Although medical ethics has existed since the time of Hippocrates, in Africa, there is a noted sluggish growth and low prestige of ethics education as bioethics is not taught in most higher educational systems of learning, low understanding of its processes as researchers manifest a general lack of appreciation for bioethics and general ignorance characterize those involved in research about ethical practices. This is unfortunate, considering that various research that aim at finding solutions to the multiple problems affecting African societies and the need to address and assess these problems in ethical terms are of crucial importance to Africans. In this work, I argue that Africa lacks human, institutional, infrastructural capacities and a real African authenticity in bioethics. Additionally, African views on bioethics are neither sufficiently developed nor heard. Africans need to confront these current challenges of bioethics to their lives and communities and to develop African conceptions to incorporate African specificities and approaches.

Keywords

Authenticity, African Communitarianism, Ethno-Ethics, Communitarian Bioethics, Professional Bioethics, Interdisciplinary Research, Biotechnology

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	[1] Ames, D. (2002). Clinical research in Africa: ethics, culture and the law. The Newsletter of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice, 3.
[2]	Amitai, E. (2011). Authoritarian versus responsive communitarian bio- ethics. Journal of Medical Ethics, 37, 17-23.
[3]	Biko, S. (2004). Some African cultural concepts. In I Write What I Like (pp. 44-53). Johannesburg: Picador Africa.
[4]	Callahan, D. (1999). Social sciences and the task of bioethics: Daedalus. American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
[5]	Chummar, P. (2009). HIV/AIDS in Africa: A bioethical hard blow to human dignity and human rights. Proceedings of the International Conference on Bioethics, Njoro, 12-14 August 2008.
[6]	Cletus, T. A. (2009). Critical issues on informed consent in Africa. Po- iesis and Praxis, 6, 109-123.
[7]	Goodman, N. (1978). Ways of world making. Indianapolis: Hackett Horton, Robin. 1971. African Conversion, 41, 85-108.
[8]	Ifeanyi, M. (2004). Person and community in African traditional thought in African philosophy: An introduction. In K. Wiredu (Ed.), A cmpanion to African philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[9]	Ijsselmuiden, C. B. & Faden, R. R. (1992). Research and informed con- sent in Africa another look. New England Journal of Medicine, 326, 831-832.
[10]	Imbo, S. O. (2004). Oral traditions as philosophy: Okot p’ Bitek’s leg- acy for African philosophy. In K. Wiredu (Ed.), A companion to African philosophy (p. 365). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[11]	Iroegbu, P. (1994). Enwisdmization and African philosophy (two sele- cted essays). Madison: International Universities Press.
[12]	Kagabo, L. (2004). Alexis Kagame (1912-1981): Life and thought. In In K. Wiredu (Ed.), A companion to African philosophy (p. 238). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[13]	Kigongo, J. K. (2009). Ethics, human rights, and development in Africa. In A. T. Dalfovo, J. Kisekka, et al. (Eds.), Cultural heritage and contemporary change, series II, Africa, 8.
[14]	Kwasi, W. (ed.) (2004). A companion to African philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[15]	Mathooko, J. M. (2009). Bioethics teaching in African institutions of higher learning. Proceedings of the International Conference on Bioethics, Njoro, 12-14 August 2008.
[16]	Mbiti, J. S. (1992). Introduction to African religion (2nd ed., p. 106). Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.
[17]	Mb?gua, K. (2009). Is there an African bioethics? Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics, 19, 4.
[18]	Mb?gua, K. (2009). Is there an African bioethics? Proceedings of the International Conference on Bioethics, Njoro, 12-14 August 2008.
[19]	Metz, T. (2007). Toward an African moral theory. The Journal of Political Philosophy, 15, 321-341. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9760.2007.00280.x
[20]	Metz, T. (2010). African and Western moral theories in a bioethical context. Developing World Bioethics, 10, 49-58.
[21]	Murove, M. (2005). African bioethics: An exploratory discourse. Jour- nal for the Study of Religion, 18, 16-36.
[22]	Nell, P. J. (2008). Morality and religion in African thought. Acta The- ologica, 2, 42.
[23]	Ogunbanjo, G. A. & van Bogaert, D. C. (2005). Communitarianism and com- munitarian bioethics. South African Family Practice Journal, 47, e3.
[24]	Onuoha, C. (2007). Bioethics across borders. An African perspective. Upsala Studies in Social Ethics, Upsala Universitet, Upsala, 14.
[25]	Pellegrino, E. D. (1992). Intersections of Western biomedical ethics and world culture: Problematic and possibility. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 3, 191-196. doi:10.1017/S0963180100000360
[26]	Priaulx, N. (2011). Vorsprung durch technik: On biotechnology, bioethics, and its beneficiaries. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 20, 174-184. doi:10.1017/S0963180110000824
[27]	Sugarman, J. & Sulmasy, D. P. (eds.) (2010). Methods in medical ethics (p. 3). Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.
[28]	Tamidayo, O. (2004). Enhancing the African bioethics initiative. BMC Medical Education, 4, 21. doi:10.1186/1472-6920-4-21
[29]	Tangwa, G. B. (1999). Bioethics: An African perspective. PubMed Central, 10, 183-200.
[30]	Tangwa, G. B. (2004). Bioethics, biotechnology and culture: A voice from the margins. Developing World Bioethics, 4, 1471-8847. doi:10.1111/j.1471-8731.2004.00088.x