Overview

Though some argue that bioethics in the Black African world is simply a reflection of the Western approach to bioethics, this work suggests otherwise. While the Western approach (bioethical principlism) claims to offer an absolute approach to bioethics in a universalized common morality, this book argues that bioethical principlism can be complemented with African approaches to bioethics. Western principlism, as primarily presented by Thomas L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress, can hardly be incarnated in the African context of bioethical problems unless it is complemented by a contextual normative understanding of African social realities, realities that themselves must be enriched by bioethical principlism. Without claiming to offer the last word on intercultural bioethics or disputing which bioethical approaches deserve prioritization, the work interactively relies on ordinary moral experiences that are practically visible in lived social realities, as well as the community realities surrounding Africans south of the Sahara. Prescriptively, in order to not simply promote life but to do so fully, the African ethical system supports an integral community life by continuously promoting the norm of solidarity, continued vitality, and the hierarchization of life within the corporate community, which the individual must not blindly follow but responsibly interact with, without her identity, freedom, and conscience being crushed.

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Reviews

""This excellent volume enriches the study of bioethics by critically assessing the principles of bioethics and by articulating African insights and contributions, which are relational and holistic, foster social justice and solidarity, and are environmentally concerned. Readers will appreciate the engagement with philosophical and theological scholarship, in Africa and beyond. The book's culturally situated approach to bioethics will contribute to addressing some of the ongoing bioethical challenges that plague our world today."" --Andrea Vicini, SJ, professor of bioethics, Boston College ""Jude Buyondo's voice bursts onto the scene with energy and a gift for synthesis. The text cuts through vapid appeals to the 'global' by demonstrating the power of Black African voices for complementing bioethics poised to alter clinical action. The bibliography alone is worth the price of entry for Anglo-American audiences, but even more delightful is the playful intellectual parrying in the venerable tradition of critical scholarship--highly recommended."" --Cyrus P. Olsen III, associate professor of theology/religious studies, University of Scranton ""Jude Buyondo searches for a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to bioethics in a unique modus that responds to different lacunae presented both in Western principlism and the African approach to bioethics. His systematic way of thought does not take any approach as superior but rather brings the Western and African approaches to bioethics into a possible integral link. Buyondo opens our eyes to pursue this vital connection if we are to conceive a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to bioethics."" --Richard Rwiza, faculty of theology, Catholic University of Eastern Africa ""This is an extraordinary contribution to intercultural dialogue on bioethics. Jude Buyondo refrains from separating African ethics from Western ethics by claiming its 'Africanness.' The author argues that bioethical principles are common ground but, in order to be fruitfully applied in Africa, need to be interpreted in the light of the African view of the connectedness of all life. What is more, such an interpretation allows African ontologically founded solidarity to complement and permeate Western bioethical principles."" --Sigrid Müller, faculty of Catholic theology, University of Vienna

"""This excellent volume enriches the study of bioethics by critically assessing the principles of bioethics and by articulating African insights and contributions, which are relational and holistic, foster social justice and solidarity, and are environmentally concerned. Readers will appreciate the engagement with philosophical and theological scholarship, in Africa and beyond. The book's culturally situated approach to bioethics will contribute to addressing some of the ongoing bioethical challenges that plague our world today."" --Andrea Vicini, SJ, professor of bioethics, Boston College ""Jude Buyondo's voice bursts onto the scene with energy and a gift for synthesis. The text cuts through vapid appeals to the 'global' by demonstrating the power of Black African voices for complementing bioethics poised to alter clinical action. The bibliography alone is worth the price of entry for Anglo-American audiences, but even more delightful is the playful intellectual parrying in the venerable tradition of critical scholarship--highly recommended."" --Cyrus P. Olsen III, associate professor of theology/religious studies, University of Scranton ""Jude Buyondo searches for a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to bioethics in a unique modus that responds to different lacunae presented both in Western principlism and the African approach to bioethics. His systematic way of thought does not take any approach as superior but rather brings the Western and African approaches to bioethics into a possible integral link. Buyondo opens our eyes to pursue this vital connection if we are to conceive a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to bioethics."" --Richard Rwiza, faculty of theology, Catholic University of Eastern Africa ""This is an extraordinary contribution to intercultural dialogue on bioethics. Jude Buyondo refrains from separating African ethics from Western ethics by claiming its 'Africanness.' The author argues that bioethical principles are common ground but, in order to be fruitfully applied in Africa, need to be interpreted in the light of the African view of the connectedness of all life. What is more, such an interpretation allows African ontologically founded solidarity to complement and permeate Western bioethical principles."" --Sigrid M�ller, faculty of Catholic theology, University of Vienna"

Author Information

Jude Thaddaeus Buyondo is concurrently a research scholar at Boston College and a senior research fellow in theological bioethics at the Department of Systematic Theology and Ethics, Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Vienna. He is an affiliate research fellow, Human Network Initiative, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women's Hospital. He is a research fellow and bioethics expert for the Templeton World Charity Foundation funded project ""Buffering, Porosity and Brain Health in Uganda.""

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