Abstract

The question of what constitutes personhood is controversial in Western bioethical literature especially in relation to its implications for healthcare. Godfrey Tangwa explores the traditional African perspective of a person and maintains that it is different totally from the Western perception as there is no dichotomy between a person and a human being in the African context. He defends a conception of personhood as a moral agent rather than a moral patient, which the Western view focuses on. The basic justification he offers in support of his position is the eco-biocommunitarian worldview. This paper seeks to respond to Tangwa by arguing that his positions on person are not only metaphysically superfluous; they are also ethically incoherent. This paper argues that Tangwa’s theses on “the traditional African perception of a person” are inaccurate representations and misapprehension of the common notion of personhood in sub-Saharan Africa. In reconstructing an African concept of personhood, this paper explores its plausible implications for global clinical bioethics relevance.