Eco-Bio-Communitarianism and Its Application to Clinical Research, Global Health, Biotechnology, and Environmental...

As the world grapples with escalating global health and environmental crises, existing Western bioethics frameworks tend to fall short in addressing the complex interdependencies between human, animal, and ecological health, as well as the diverse cultural and belief systems in many parts of the world. Eco-bio-communitarianism, a bioethics framework informed by an African indigenous worldview, provides a commonsensical, practical, and comprehensive approach that can bring about positive change in global and public health. The framework promotes the principles of planetary kinship, relational interdependence, non-anthropocentricity, eco-bio-centricity, and cosmic humility. Unlike mainstream bioethics, which is frequently driven by individual autonomy and biomedical reductionism, eco-bio-communitarianism situates health within a broader moral ecology that recognizes the interconnectedness of all life forms, including humans, non-human species, ecosystems, and cultures. This paper showcases the practical application and utility of eco-bio-communitarianism through a series of case studies addressing and examining zoonotic disease management, biotechnology governance, and gene therapy. Far from dismissing Western bioethics models, eco-bio-communitarianism invites a pluralistic and decolonial expansion of global bioethics, one that respects cultural specificities and advances ecological responsibility and relational justice, while urging public health practitioners, policymakers, and global health actors to embrace a more inclusive, relational, and culturally attuned perspective to global health and the biomedical sciences.