Toward an Africanized Bioethics Curriculum

Abstract

Although many bioethicists have given attention to the special health issues of Africa and to the ethics of research on the continent, only a handful have considered these issues through the lens of African moral thought. The question has been for the most part neglected as to what a distinctively African moral perspective would be for the analysis and teaching of bioethics issues. To address the oversight, the authors of this paper describe embarking on a project aimed at incorporating African moral perspective, values and philosophy into a teaching curriculum. The authors clarify the rationale for the project and discuss the strategies employed in Africanizing the bioethics curriculum.

Turning the moral compass towards transformative research ethics: An inflection point for humanised pedagogy in higher education

“…At the same time, it is also important to consider how research participants and communities are positioned within this very complex setting and how their belief systems and sociocultural practices could influence the research process. [15,19] Coming back to the ethics of care, researchers must understand the cultural nuances and how these might differ or even clash with their own belief systems. Researchers should show respect for cultural and social diversity, and the following examples illustrate the possible tensions that can arise because of these differing worldviews.…”