Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for scientists t... more Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for scientists to seize control of our genes and redirect our evolutionary futures, which can lead to production of a morally bifurcated world of humans. Confronted with the reality of tailor-designing humans to ultimately tailor-make a human person and of remaking humanity, many scientists advocate for a ban or moratorium to evaluate the benefits and risks. While others counter that we need to embrace the uncertainties and let science move on. This work, critically examines the ethically contentious issues of editing DNA of healthy human embryos and maps out the regulatory challenges accompanying the futuristic development of genome editing technologies in Africa. It explores the range of mechanisms that have been adopted for regulation, oversight and mediation of public concerns. The absence of robust oversight and ethical control mechanisms to prevent technologies from being misused is a serious challenge for Africans to develop regulatory safeguards. There is still a huge lack of study to establish evidence if gene editing technologies would be used to foster the eugenic agenda of the gene rich of the West over the gene poor of Africa, or promote the common good. Work further identifies the need for African governments to formulate new guidelines for genome editing technologies and build appropriate regulatory structures to identify, anticipate and respond to public concerns on embryo gene editing for reproduction.
Abstract
Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for sci... more Abstract Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for scientists to seize control of our genes and redirect our evolutionary futures, which can lead to production of a morally bifurcated world of humans. Confronted with the reality of tailor-designing humans to ultimately tailor-make a human person and of remaking humanity, many scientists advocate for a ban or moratorium to evaluate the benefits and risks. While others counter that we need to embrace the uncertainties and let science move on. This work, critically examines the ethically contentious issues of editing DNA of healthy human embryos and maps out the regulatory challenges accompanying the futuristic development of genome editing technologies in Africa. It explores the range of mechanisms that have been adopted for regulation, oversight and mediation of public concerns. The absence of robust oversight and ethical control mechanisms to prevent technologies from being misused is a serious challenge for Africans to develop regulatory safeguards. There is still a huge lack of study to establish evidence if gene editing technologies would be used to foster the eugenic agenda of the gene rich of the West over the gene poor of Africa, or promote the common good. Work further identifies the need for African governments to formulate new guidelines for genome editing technologies and build appropriate regulatory structures to identify, anticipate and respond to public concerns on embryo gene editing for reproduction.
In recent times, bioethics has emerged as a burgeoning interdisciplinary field of scholarly inves... more In recent times, bioethics has emerged as a burgeoning interdisciplinary field of scholarly investigation which has in the past decades migrated from bedside consultations to public policy debates and wider cultural and social conversations that privilege all discourse about everyday life issues. Today, bioethics is increasingly seen as a field departing from a multidisciplinary perspective to an autonomous discipline. In most Western countries, the field is now more organized, complete with undergraduate minors and majors, and even high school courses in bioethics, master's degrees and doctoral programs, and professional associations. Also, there is a shift from a field populated by bioethics pioneers to a field made up of bioethics professionals. However, in Africa the emergence and evolution of the field is still problematic as bioethics is not yet an escalating discipline in the tradition of books, journals, classroom teachings and conferences. In this paper, it is argued that the lack of an authentic discourse on the nature and contents of bioethics, interdisciplinary research approaches, institutional and infrastructural needs and a critical mass of African experts constitutes the major challenges to the teaching of bioethics in Africa. There is a need to reinvigorate standards for teaching bioethics through a radical critique of traditional values, principles, methods and a careful assessment of the new megatrends and challenges in science, technology and medicine.
Bioethics is a field of study and professional practice, variously conceptualized fashionably as:... more Bioethics is a field of study and professional practice, variously conceptualized fashionably as: multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, pluriperspectivity and integrativity. Despite being a professional practice that bioethicists engage with everyday, bioethics in Africa is still poorly characterized both methodologically and pedagogically as its discourse is still narrowly focused and its worldviews are increasingly alienated and marginalized from mainstream. Core bioethical values and principles from Africa are among the most under-theorized, under-researched, under-valued and under-discussed aspect in mainstream bioethics and professional practice. This is the case with communitarian bioethics whose philosophical foundations and normative underpinnings, moral theories and principles are still largely unexplored, and the solid pillars not yet firmly implanted as scepticism characterize its future. But dominant mainstream bioethical values are portrayed as the only valid universal ideal and Western bioethicists still struggle to 'remake' or 'recreate' the discipline according to their cultural and ethical traditions'. Confronted with this crisis of negation of identity, self affirmation and the quest for authenticity, this work is a radical critique of the foreign oppressive systems and structures of power that serve to define African existence in certain erroneous beliefs, paradigm and the consequent alienation of its worldview. It critically examines how mainstream bioethical values become a universal code of knowledge, intelligence, superiority, orderliness, purity and how it functions as a master sign. How
Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for scientists t... more Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for scientists to seize control of our genes and redirect our evolutionary futures, which can lead to production of a morally bifurcated world of humans. Confronted with the reality of tailor-designing humans to ultimately tailor-make a human person and of remaking humanity, many scientists advocate for a ban or moratorium to evaluate the benefits and risks. While others counter that we need to embrace the uncertainties and let science move on. This work, critically examines the ethically contentious issues of editing DNA of healthy human embryos and maps out the regulatory challenges accompanying the futuristic development of genome editing technologies in Africa. It explores the range of mechanisms that have been adopted for regulation, oversight and mediation of public concerns. The absence of robust oversight and ethical control mechanisms to prevent technologies from being misused is a serious challenge for Africans to develop regulatory safeguards. There is still a huge lack of study to establish evidence if gene editing technologies would be used to foster the eugenic agenda of the gene rich of the West over the gene poor of Africa, or promote the common good. Work further identifies the need for African governments to formulate new guidelines for genome editing technologies and build appropriate regulatory structures to identify, anticipate and respond to public concerns on embryo gene editing for reproduction.
Abstract
Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for sci... more Abstract Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for scientists to seize control of our genes and redirect our evolutionary futures, which can lead to production of a morally bifurcated world of humans. Confronted with the reality of tailor-designing humans to ultimately tailor-make a human person and of remaking humanity, many scientists advocate for a ban or moratorium to evaluate the benefits and risks. While others counter that we need to embrace the uncertainties and let science move on. This work, critically examines the ethically contentious issues of editing DNA of healthy human embryos and maps out the regulatory challenges accompanying the futuristic development of genome editing technologies in Africa. It explores the range of mechanisms that have been adopted for regulation, oversight and mediation of public concerns. The absence of robust oversight and ethical control mechanisms to prevent technologies from being misused is a serious challenge for Africans to develop regulatory safeguards. There is still a huge lack of study to establish evidence if gene editing technologies would be used to foster the eugenic agenda of the gene rich of the West over the gene poor of Africa, or promote the common good. Work further identifies the need for African governments to formulate new guidelines for genome editing technologies and build appropriate regulatory structures to identify, anticipate and respond to public concerns on embryo gene editing for reproduction.
In recent times, bioethics has emerged as a burgeoning interdisciplinary field of scholarly inves... more In recent times, bioethics has emerged as a burgeoning interdisciplinary field of scholarly investigation which has in the past decades migrated from bedside consultations to public policy debates and wider cultural and social conversations that privilege all discourse about everyday life issues. Today, bioethics is increasingly seen as a field departing from a multidisciplinary perspective to an autonomous discipline. In most Western countries, the field is now more organized, complete with undergraduate minors and majors, and even high school courses in bioethics, master's degrees and doctoral programs, and professional associations. Also, there is a shift from a field populated by bioethics pioneers to a field made up of bioethics professionals. However, in Africa the emergence and evolution of the field is still problematic as bioethics is not yet an escalating discipline in the tradition of books, journals, classroom teachings and conferences. In this paper, it is argued that the lack of an authentic discourse on the nature and contents of bioethics, interdisciplinary research approaches, institutional and infrastructural needs and a critical mass of African experts constitutes the major challenges to the teaching of bioethics in Africa. There is a need to reinvigorate standards for teaching bioethics through a radical critique of traditional values, principles, methods and a careful assessment of the new megatrends and challenges in science, technology and medicine.
Bioethics is a field of study and professional practice, variously conceptualized fashionably as:... more Bioethics is a field of study and professional practice, variously conceptualized fashionably as: multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, pluriperspectivity and integrativity. Despite being a professional practice that bioethicists engage with everyday, bioethics in Africa is still poorly characterized both methodologically and pedagogically as its discourse is still narrowly focused and its worldviews are increasingly alienated and marginalized from mainstream. Core bioethical values and principles from Africa are among the most under-theorized, under-researched, under-valued and under-discussed aspect in mainstream bioethics and professional practice. This is the case with communitarian bioethics whose philosophical foundations and normative underpinnings, moral theories and principles are still largely unexplored, and the solid pillars not yet firmly implanted as scepticism characterize its future. But dominant mainstream bioethical values are portrayed as the only valid universal ideal and Western bioethicists still struggle to 'remake' or 'recreate' the discipline according to their cultural and ethical traditions'. Confronted with this crisis of negation of identity, self affirmation and the quest for authenticity, this work is a radical critique of the foreign oppressive systems and structures of power that serve to define African existence in certain erroneous beliefs, paradigm and the consequent alienation of its worldview. It critically examines how mainstream bioethical values become a universal code of knowledge, intelligence, superiority, orderliness, purity and how it functions as a master sign. How
Uploads
Papers by Cletus Andoh
Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for scientists to seize control of our genes and redirect our evolutionary futures, which can lead to production of a morally bifurcated world of humans. Confronted with the reality of tailor-designing humans to ultimately tailor-make a human person and of remaking humanity, many scientists advocate for a ban or moratorium to evaluate the benefits and risks. While others counter that we need to embrace the uncertainties and let science move on. This work, critically examines the ethically contentious issues of editing DNA of healthy human embryos and maps out the regulatory challenges accompanying the futuristic development of genome editing technologies in Africa. It explores the range of mechanisms that have been adopted for regulation, oversight and mediation of public concerns. The absence of robust oversight and ethical control mechanisms to prevent technologies from being misused is a serious challenge for Africans to develop regulatory safeguards. There is still a huge lack of study to establish evidence if gene editing technologies would be used to foster the eugenic agenda of the gene rich of the West over the gene poor of Africa, or promote the common good. Work further identifies the need for African governments to formulate new guidelines for genome editing technologies and build appropriate regulatory structures to identify, anticipate and respond to public concerns on embryo gene editing for reproduction.
Human germline modification, using Crisp Cas-9 technology, increases the chances for scientists to seize control of our genes and redirect our evolutionary futures, which can lead to production of a morally bifurcated world of humans. Confronted with the reality of tailor-designing humans to ultimately tailor-make a human person and of remaking humanity, many scientists advocate for a ban or moratorium to evaluate the benefits and risks. While others counter that we need to embrace the uncertainties and let science move on. This work, critically examines the ethically contentious issues of editing DNA of healthy human embryos and maps out the regulatory challenges accompanying the futuristic development of genome editing technologies in Africa. It explores the range of mechanisms that have been adopted for regulation, oversight and mediation of public concerns. The absence of robust oversight and ethical control mechanisms to prevent technologies from being misused is a serious challenge for Africans to develop regulatory safeguards. There is still a huge lack of study to establish evidence if gene editing technologies would be used to foster the eugenic agenda of the gene rich of the West over the gene poor of Africa, or promote the common good. Work further identifies the need for African governments to formulate new guidelines for genome editing technologies and build appropriate regulatory structures to identify, anticipate and respond to public concerns on embryo gene editing for reproduction.