Centre for Ethics and Philosophy of Health Sciences

The modern era of medicine has come about because of scientific and technological progress.  Health Ethics is an essential counter balance to the scientific nature of health care and reflects on the moral decisions that are required by health practitioners.  It emphasises the human values of justice, fairness and empathy that contributes to a positive patient experience. CEPHS embraces the African culturic ethic of Ubunta by being person- and people centred.

CEPHS is committed to the development of academic capacity and producing scholarly input that is responsive to South African and international trends as well as regulatory requirements. It provides a synergistic platform for research into ethics for both its associates and students. 

Our aim is to  respond with conceptual sophistication that is relevant to the ethical practice of all health sciences accross multiple disciplines.  CEPHS associates offer a multi-disciplinary approach to the conceptual challenges posed by clinical research and the practice of health care. 

We collaborate with international, African and South African tertiary institutions to advance education, research and clinical interests in health ethics and the philosophy of health sciences.

We advance our aims by:

• The development of research capacity in ethics and philosophy of health sciences.
• Development of training and teaching capapcity through research in ethics and philosophy of health sciences.
• To influence practice, services, policies and managmenet in the health sector.

Our key reserach areas are:

1. Ethics of Mental Health
2. Ethics of Pandemic Diseases
3. Ethics of Health Research
4. Person centeredness and Informed Consent to Health Inteventions
5. Philosphy of Mental health
6. Values in Health Practice (Axiology of Health Practice)

The centre is situated within the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria.