Abstract
Advancement in assisted reproductive technologies now gives society access to procreation that was never thought to be possible. These technologies can be employed to bring joy to couples in childless marriages but these raise several medical, legal as well as ethical questions that need much discussion and appraisal.
Before the advent of these technologies, the traditional Akan society, for instance, had ways of dealing with childless marriages. These included traditional adoption and a ‘levirate’ practice. At the heart of the attempt to resolving the issue of infertility in marriages was the understanding that any discussions of the sexual, reproductive and relational ethics of African marriage must take the entire family or community into account.
Today, these reproductive technologies have made procreation impersonal and the sad part of it is that money has taken the centre stage in resolving the issue of childlessness in marriages. For the indigenous Akan, procreation was not perceived as impersonal but rather personal and involving. Obviously, these modern reproductive technologies throw a challenge to African ethical values and practices. Therefore, in this chapter, a critical analysis is made to find out the extent to which these technologies have played out in the indigenous Akan milieu.
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Notes
- 1.
By ‘indigenous’ Akan we mean those Akan whose forebears founded settlements where they are found today and are prepared to follow the customs and traditions of their forebears.
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Awuah-Nyamekye, S., Oppong, J. (2021). The Use of Sex Selection Reproductive Technology in Traditional African Societies: An Ethical Evaluation and a Case for Its Adaptation. In: Okyere-Manu, B.D. (eds) African Values, Ethics, and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70550-3_13
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