Is there an African Bioethics

Abstract

Is there an African bioethics? This paper addresses this question by first exploring the ongoing debate on the nature and status of African philosophy. It is argued that if African philosophy exists, then by extension an African bioethics must exist since bioethics is a sub-branch of philosophy. Further, a distinction is made between bioethics as a set of moral principles rooted in a people’s culture which should guide clinical care and scientific research and bioethics as a discipline in the university, with a set of codes, standards, recognized practitioners and customs. It is argued that bioethics in the former sense has always existed in Africa but bioethics in the latter sense is a relatively new development in the continent.