The Bioethics Society of Kenya (BSK) in Partnership with the UNESCO Regional Chair in Bioethics and Documentation Centre (Egerton University) and the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa based (Nairobi) recently organized a bioethics Café on 23rd November 2022 at CoELIB Centre.
During the forum, individuals from diverse academic backgrounds came together to discuss selected topics relevant to bioethics. The November 2022 Bioethics Café was themed “Decolonizing Bioethics in Africa”.
Bioethics deals with ethical, social, and legal issues in biomedicine and biomedical research. The practice has often referenced ethical principles and frameworks determined by Western epistemologies. Application of the Western bioethics systems in the context of Africa has often presented biased and futile approaches to policy and interventions. In relevance to ideas of African philosophy, the forum incorporated a section on the contribution of African philosophy to bioethics, as part of the commemoration of UNESCO World Philosophy Day which is marked on 30th November every year.
The audience was drawn from various backgrounds including the University management, members of the Institutional Scientific and Ethics Review Committees, faculty, researchers, and students.
BSK organizes regular cafés in various institutions in Kenya to fulfill its core mandate to promote ethics in research, medicine, and health care. The UNESCO Regional Chair in Bioethics and Documentation Centre (Egerton University) was established in 1998 within the UNESCO/UNITWIN Programme. The establishment has, among other mandates, the role of initiating and contributing to the public debate on bioethical issues.
Chat with Coli 
