Elements of African Bioethics in a Western Frame

4. AFRICAN BIOETHICS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

~ 39 ~ CHAPTER FOUR AFRICAN BIOETHICS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT [A version of this chapter is published in World Development: Aid and Foreign Direct Investment 1999/2000, London: Kensington Publications Ltd., in Conjunction with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), pp. 115-118, under the title “African Bioethics and Globalization”] INTRODUCTION Biodiversity, by which I understand the great number and variety of biological species and forms in the world, and agriculture - the deliberate cultivation of any of these species or forms by human beings for human needs - can be said to be made for each other. Biodiversity is to agriculture what concepts are to a thinker. Without concepts the thinker is as handicapped as a farmer without biodiversity. But, once a thinker starts using concepts to make statements, logic becomes indispensable. In the same manner ethics becomes important when an agriculturalist starts using biodiversity in farming. It is, for instance, an ethical issue whether the farmer uses biodiversity sustain-ably, that is, in such a way as not to destroy it, but rather preserve it for future generations, or otherwise. Systematic concern with the sum total of such ethical issues arising from the use of biodiversity might be termed ‘bioethics without much further ado. However, the term ‘bioethics’ has been used in more restricted senses in Western discourse. The term is of recent coinage, but that does not imply that what it describes came into being only recently. As a special branch of morality, bioethics is concerned with questions of right and wrong in relation to life or living things generally and, especially within Western discourse, with controversial issues arising from modern Western medicine, biomedical research and attendant technologies. Professor Van Rensselaer Potter who is credited with coinage of the word ‘bioethics’ intended it as an extension of ethics meant to cover not only medical ethics but environmental and agricultural ethics, in short, ‘the application of ethics to all of life’ (Potter, 1996, p.2). He justifiably complains that some people have seized upon the term and tried to restrict it to medical ethics. The restrictive sense of ‘bioethics’ is, however, ~ 40 ~ important because modern Western medicine, biomedical research and attendant technologies, especially genetic technology, have great potential to transform our lives and our world as we have known them, and because of the rapidity, novelty and magnitude of the problems they raise. Nevertheless, it is also important to keep the less restrictive and more general sense of ‘bioethics’ always in mind, if for no other reason than that some of the controversies and dilemmas which arise within bioethics in the more restrictive sense are best tackled by considering bioethics in the more general and generic sense. There are peoples and cultures such as those of Africa for whom Western culture and technology mean little but who, nevertheless, can contribute valid and valuable ideas regarding the fundamental issues, questions, dilemmas and controversies arising within Western technology and practice, if these are considered in their stark simplicity, devoid of the complex conceptual baggage and technical jargon that have accrued around them, thanks to various competing vested interests. This is one reason why globalization is an important concept and process, the other being the fact that Western culture is a dominant, domineering and proselytizing culture which has not left any part of the earth untouched. Moreover, cultures, viewed from any initial point of observation, can be considered as forming intersecting concentric circles (Tangwa, 1992, p.142), the widest of which can be taken as delimiting human culture in general. AFRICAN DIVERSITIES Increasing global awareness of the importance of biodiversity has led to further awareness that the problems which arise in connection with the preservation and exploitation of the globe’s biodiversity, in short, the sustainable use of the earth’s biological resources, can only be tackled from a global perspective. The Convention on Biological Diversity - which attempts to address inter alia, issues of fairness and equity in the global sharing of the benefits arising out of the world’s genetic resources - is an example of such attempt at globalization. Moreover, globalization as a process made possible and inevitable by advances in science and technology, especially locomotion and communication technologies, should slowly but surely be turning the world into a ‘rainbow global village’. There is a very simple and straightforward reason why Africa should be greatly interested in this process of globalization. Among ~ 41 ~ the continents of the earth, Africa presents...