Ubuntu and Bioethics

Abstract

This chapter draws on the sub-Saharan African concept of ubuntu (humanness) to identify salient features within African ethics that can shed important light on central topics in contemporary bioethics. It describes three specific areas where ubuntu is well positioned to make transformative and lasting changes. First, an ubuntu-informed conception of what it means to be a person in the moral sense can enhance standard bioethical understandings of who qualifies as a subject of moral concern and who can be a strong claimant of moral rights. This carries implications for bioethics topics such as abortion and the treatment of newly deceased patients. Second, ubuntu can reinvigorate debates about respect for human dignity. This has both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, an ubuntu-informed understanding of human dignity can contribute insights to capability approaches to justice; practically, it can enhance bioethics in both pediatric and geriatric settings. Finally, an ubuntu-guided environmental philosophy can help address urgent issues in global bioethics, such as those related to emerging infectious diseases and climate change.