Taboos and Medicine in Yoruba Medicine: The Unexplored Aspects of Bioethics

Abstract

Taboo and bioethics constitute two major fundamental elements of the practice of traditional Yoruba medicine (TYM) that are intricately linked yet largely unexplored. However, their importance can be truly exemplified in the sustenance and maintenance of the ontological harmony between man and its environment, which in an apt sense is basic to averting unforeseen dangers to human life. This paper is therefore an attempt to bring to limelight, the indispensable aspect of taboos especially in relation to the study of bioethics in traditional Yoruba Medicine. It vehemently argues that taboo and its implications, in Africa and Yoruba cosmology, go beyond mere natural social relevance or social ethical implications; rather, its philosophical underpinning is also entrenched in bioethics ? an aspect of traditional medicine that greatly deals with the preservation of human life. Thus, for proper analysis, these two interrelated phenomena must be critically examined from the indigenous point of view, and this constitutes the focal point of this paper.

Received: 10 November 2023 / Accepted: 24 February 2024 / Published: 6 March 2024