SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This chapter affirms the importance of the ethno in African moral discourse with particular reference to bioethical discourse. It begins by showing that the deductions of moral theories – normative, meta or applied – from African thought are made possible through a deliberate and careful understanding of the ethno-ethics of African peoples often revolving around the concept of relationality or Ubuntu. It instantiates this by showing that the primary contribution of African bioethicists to the predominantly Western notion of principlism and its four cardinal principles of respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice is the principle of relationality which is extrapolated from African ethno-moral culture. If this is the case, the chapter asserts further that the understanding of who the othered patients are in an African bioethical context and how the principlist principle of relationality may be beneficial or harmful to them is only possible within the context of the ethno of personhood in African cultures. The chapter concludes by highlighting some practical ways healthcare providers can take the ethno and context more seriously in order to improve the quality of healthcare delivery to patients.