African culture is said to revolve around the celebration of life. Life being not merely a physical life, or the health of tissues and proper functioning of the body, but also sharp senses and intellect that strives for the pursuit of truth and goodness in the context of a community. This in some way approximates the American Constitutional phrase, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". However, the only difference is that in African tradition, this is a communal pursuit, whereas in America it is in the context of rugged individualism.
Medicine meets human life by facilitating conception, monitoring gestation, and assisting birth. Thereafter, it accompanies a person through life primarily by preventive medical care and, when there is …show more content…
These give rise to what is not mere "ethics" in the popular sense, but can properly be called "medical morals", which considers the intrinsic rightness or wrongness of any procedure. A clash between ethics and morals occurred in February of this year, when "a judge recommended that a Roman Catholic pharmacist in Wisconsin be reprimanded and required to attend ethics classes after the pharmacist blocked a woman's attempt to fill a prescription for birth control pills in 2002."[1] This could be compared to ordering a Muslim to take an ethics course because he would not sell alcohol. Opting out of an active cooperation due to morally objectionable terms can become a clash with legal …show more content…
The following are some of the Christian or Muslim values that have reinforced or coalesced with or sometimes sublimated African traditional values:
In the Old Testament
The first chapters of Genesis set the tone that prevails throughout the Old Testament. Man is made in the image and likeness of God (1:27). The drama of Cain killing Abel (chapter 4; Job 16:18) points not only to God's concern for the innocent, but also for the guilty Cain. Abel's blood crying to God from the Earth announces the sacredness of life focused in its primary symbol, blood (Cf. Gen 9:6). Violating the sacredness of life entails the death penalty (Ex 21:12; Num 35:16 ff.). Shedding the blood of animals in sacrifice in substitution for human blood was a symbolic expression of the covenant submission and consecration of human life to God (Lev 1; Ex 24), we could say an expression of Islam in the fundamental meaning of the
Medicine meets human life by facilitating conception, monitoring gestation, and assisting birth. Thereafter, it accompanies a person through life primarily by preventive medical care and, when there is …show more content…
These give rise to what is not mere "ethics" in the popular sense, but can properly be called "medical morals", which considers the intrinsic rightness or wrongness of any procedure. A clash between ethics and morals occurred in February of this year, when "a judge recommended that a Roman Catholic pharmacist in Wisconsin be reprimanded and required to attend ethics classes after the pharmacist blocked a woman's attempt to fill a prescription for birth control pills in 2002."[1] This could be compared to ordering a Muslim to take an ethics course because he would not sell alcohol. Opting out of an active cooperation due to morally objectionable terms can become a clash with legal …show more content…
The following are some of the Christian or Muslim values that have reinforced or coalesced with or sometimes sublimated African traditional values:
In the Old Testament
The first chapters of Genesis set the tone that prevails throughout the Old Testament. Man is made in the image and likeness of God (1:27). The drama of Cain killing Abel (chapter 4; Job 16:18) points not only to God's concern for the innocent, but also for the guilty Cain. Abel's blood crying to God from the Earth announces the sacredness of life focused in its primary symbol, blood (Cf. Gen 9:6). Violating the sacredness of life entails the death penalty (Ex 21:12; Num 35:16 ff.). Shedding the blood of animals in sacrifice in substitution for human blood was a symbolic expression of the covenant submission and consecration of human life to God (Lev 1; Ex 24), we could say an expression of Islam in the fundamental meaning of the