African Traditional Medicine: Autonomy and Informed Consent

Download or read book African Traditional Medicine: Autonomy and Informed Consent written by Peter Ikechukwu Osuji and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-07-18 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on informed consent in African Traditional Medicine (ATM). ATM forms a large portion of the healthcare systems in Africa. WHO statistics show that as much as 80% of the population in Africa uses traditional medicine for primary health care. With such a large constituency, it follows that ATM and its practices should receive more attention in bioethics. By comparing the ethics of care approach with the ATM approach to Relational Autonomy In Consent (RAIC), the authors argue that the ATM focus on consent based on consensus constitutes a legitimate informed consent. This book is distinctive insofar as it employs the ethics of care as a hermeneutic to interpret ATM. The analysis examines the ethics of care movement in Western bioethics to explore its relational approach to informed consent. Additionally, this is the first known study that discusses healthcare ethics committees in ATM.