The Concept of Health Care Ethics among the Larteh of Ghana: Implications for Medical Practice in Ghana

The Concept of Health Care Ethics among the Larteh of Ghana: Implications for Medical Practice in Ghana

Alexander Hackman-Aidoo and Constantine K. M. Kudzedzi

Issue: Vol.4 No.7 Article 4 pp.825-840
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2023474 | Published online 21st July, 2023
© 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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ABSTRACT

This research analysed traditional healthcare ethics as perceived by the people of Larteh in Ghana. It is an ethnographic research that studied narratives of health care ethics and analysed their contents. The research attempted to extrapolate unique elements of what might be called the Larteh traditional system of health care ethics, showing their significance for health care in public and private health care centres and hospitals in Ghana. Thus using an ethno-medical approach, generally within the scope of Gyekye’s theory of communalism and Bertalanffy’s general systems theory, the paper argued that though some of the ethical ideas contained in the narratives constitute fragments of ethical behaviour among healers, they largely reflected ethics of health care practice known to Western or Orthodox medical practice such as confidentiality, professionalism, limited non-maleficence and paternalism. Nonetheless, other elements could provide important lessons for improving the care of patients in Ghana. The paper concluded that Larteh’s traditional ideas of health care provide ethical principles that not only preserve the dignity of the patient but also teach principles that can contribute to the development of health care generally. The significance of this paper is in its ability to provide a framework for interpreting traditional healthcare ethics.

Keywords: Health care, ethics, indigenous knowledge systems, traditional medicine

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ABOUT AUTHOR(S)

Alexander Hackman-Aidoo is a Teaching Associate at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Coast. He holds a Bachelor of Education (Arts), Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Master of Philosophy (Religion and Human Values) all from the University of Cape Coast. He also holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He has over a decade of experience in teaching and research. His research interests include Religion, Intellectual Property Law and Medical Law.

Constantine K.M Kudzedzi , ESQ. is the Managing Partner of Cann Quashie and Co, Law Firm, Takoradi, Ghana. He has over twenty-two years standing at the Ghana Bar. During his years of practice, he has provided extensive advisory services to diverse clients, including traditional councils, corporate institutions, and religious institutions, among others. He has, for the past ten years, been engaged as a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Coast. Mr. Kudzedzi’s field of practice spans the spectrum of Corporate and Commercial law, Petroleum and Oil and Gas, Immovable Property, Taxation, Equity and Trusts, Succession, Civil Litigation and Criminal Justice. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) Degree from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland and a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LLB) from the University of Ghana, Legon. He is the Head, Department of Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Coast. He serves as the Vice President, Ghana Bar Association, Western Region.

TO CITE ARTICLE

Hackman-Aidoo, A. and Kudzedzi, C.K.M. “The Concept of Health Care Ethics among the Larteh of Ghana: Implications for Medical Practice in Ghana.” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 4, no.7 (2023): 825-840. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2023474