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Bioethics and Technology: An African Ethical Perspective

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African Values, Ethics, and Technology

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Abstract

Bioethics refers to ethical issues arising from the creation and maintenance of the health of all living things. Technology embraces the concept of techniques to derive a product, and the required knowledge of its use, application and process in developing products (Lovell 1998; Bozeman 2000), while the techniques, skills, and knowledge required to create and maintain the health of all living things, is termed biotechnology. United Nations (UNCTAD 2002, 3), define biotechnology as “technologies that use biological matter or processes to generate new and useful products”. Such techniques range from genetic modification, hybridization, interbreeding and manipulation of individual genes in humans, animals, plants and microorganisms. For Batalion (2000), the central problem of biotechnology lies in the overall attempt to control living nature on an erroneous mechanistic view. I think the problem is instead ethical and geographically discriminative, since certain parts of the world, like Africa, are affected more negatively by the impacts of biotechnology on life than in other parts of the world. The hypothesis is that the relationship between technology and organic life, by the use of biotechnology, has great ethical implications for developing countries, like sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, we investigate African ethical perspective on bioethics and biotechnology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The characteristics of an organism that results from the interaction of its genetic constitution with the environment (Bull et al. 1982, 77).

  2. 2.

    For details, one can read what Tangwa calls “Nso’ Metaphysical Conceptions and Worldview” (Tangwa 1996, 188-193).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda

    Wilfred Lajul

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  1. Wilfred Lajul
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

    Beatrice Dedaa Okyere-Manu

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Lajul, W. (2021). Bioethics and Technology: An African Ethical Perspective. In: Okyere-Manu, B.D. (eds) African Values, Ethics, and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70550-3_12

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