The Philosophical Foundations of Bioethics in African Medical Practice: Towards an Original Ubuntu Bioethics Framework

This dissertation develops an original Ubuntu Bioethics Framework as an alternative to the dominant four principles bioethics of Beauchamp and Childress for application in African medical contexts, drawing on clinical ethics cases from Nigerian hospitals across the South South, North East, and South West geopolitical zones. Standard Western bioethics frameworks are grounded in individualist philosophical premises that produce ethically inappropriate prescriptions in African healthcare settings where relational personhood, family decision-making authority, and communal health concepts shape clinical reality. A four-phase methodology is employed, combining systematic critique of Western bioethics from African philosophical standpoints; ethnobiophilosophical investigation of African medical moral concepts through 80 interviews with traditional healers, clinical ethicists, and philosophy academics across the study zones; case analysis of 50 clinical ethics cases from Nigerian hospitals from 2020 to 2024; and constructive development of the original Ubuntu Bioethics Framework. The dissertation proposes the Ubuntu Bioethics Framework as an original contribution, specifying four Ubuntu bioethical principles: relational beneficence (benefiting the patient's web of relationships), communal autonomy (respecting the family and community as co-decision-makers), dignity-in-relationship (respecting dignity as constituted by social recognition), and restorative non-maleficence (addressing harm through communal restoration). Original contributions include the framework, case studies demonstrating its application, and a training curriculum for clinical ethics education in Nigerian medical schools. Keywords: Ubuntu bioethics, African medical ethics, relational personhood, clinical ethics, Nigeria.