Bioethics in Africa: Theories and Praxis

Yaw A. Frimpong-Mansoh · Caesar A. Atuire

jul 2019 · Vernon Press

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Bioethics urges us to question and debate fundamental moral issues that arise in health-related sciences. However, as a result of Western dominance and globalization, bioethical thinking and practice has inevitably been shaped and defined by Western theories. With recent discussions centering on the relationship between culture and bioethics, it is important to consider how and to what extent can bioethics reflect and accommodate non-Western values and beliefs? Debatably, many scholars working in the field of ‘African bioethics’ seek to construct a bioethical practice that is grounded in indigenous African values. Yet, how relevant are ancient African cultural norms to the lives and realities of the 21st century Sub-Saharan-Africans? 

This edited volume explores bioethics in Africa from pluralistic and inter-cultural perspectives. The selected papers offer diverse theoretical and practical perspectives on the bioethical challenges that are common and specific to the lives of Sub-Sahara Africans. The contributors define bioethics broadly (beyond ethical issues relating to biomedical and biotechnological science) to include applied ethics that concern all aspects of life. Multidisciplinary in approach, the contributions to this book consider bioethics in relation to philosophy, social work, psychiatry, African studies, religious studies, psychology, and medicine. The broad scope of this volume means it will be of interest to those studying and working in bioethics as well as the fields mentioned above.

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Yaw A. Frimpong-Mansoh holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Alberta, Canada. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Program Coordinator at the Northern Kentucky University. Frimpong-Mansoh has authored several journal articles including ‘Culture and Voluntary Informed Consent in African Healthcare Systems’ (in Developing World Bioethics) and ‘Repentance and Change of Character Excuse Wrongdoing?’ (in International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society). He also presented a paper at the 2015 conference ‘Giving a voice to African thought in medical research ethics’ at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. His research interests include healthcare ethics/ bioethics, social and political philosophy, ethics (theory and applied) and African philosophy.

Caesar A. Atuire holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, Rome. He is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Ghana, Legon. Atuire has authored several publications including Leaping the bounds of the Elysian Fields: an anthropological inquiry concerning suicide (2005), Understanding the Christian Faith (2017), a book chapter in the edited volume Futuro Ignoto: Conversazioni sulla nuova era digitale (2014), a paper in African Studies Quarterly, ‘Pursuing Nation Building within Multi-Partisan Fragmentation: The Case of Ghana. In the summer of 2018, he was AfOx Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University, where he presented lectures on bioethics at the Ethox Centre and at NeuroGene. His research interests include bioethics, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and philosophical anthropology.