CEBESA

The College of Medicine is one of the very few Medical Colleges in Africa which consider the subject of Bioethics as necessary and indispensable. Within the College of Medicine, Bioethics is taken by all the students in all undergraduate courses and the College is now offering a Master of Public Health degree with Specialty in Bioethics. All these initiatives are coordinated by the Centre for Bioethics in Southern Africa (CEBESA) .CEBESA falls under the Health-Social Sciences Unit in the Department of Community Health. It is mainly involved in the following activities:

• Teaching of Bioethics to undergraduate students in all the programmes in the college of Medicine (Medicine, Pharmacy and Laboratory Sciences) from First year up to Fifth Year.
• Teaching of Bioethics and Research Ethics to Postgraduate students in the Master of Public Health Degree (MPH) and particularly coordinating the Master of Public Health Degree with specialty in Bioethics.
• Providing training to ethics committee members and researchers on Research Ethics, Research Methodology and Good Clinical Practice.
• Conducting research on various topics in the area of Bioethics.
• Advising various stakeholders including Government, Research Ethics Committees (RECs), hospitals, researchers, health practitioners, students, members of the public and others on issues related to Bioethics, Research Ethics and Good Clinical Practice (GCP).

CEBESA’s Mission

CEBESA seeks to promote the ethical practice of medicine and the ethical conduct of health research through the teaching of, and conducting of research in the area of Bioethics and Research Ethics. CEBESA seeks to reach out to various institutions, hospitals, projects and researchers and communities using various means. CEBESA works closely with the two ethics Committees in Malawi namely the National Health Sciences Research Committee (NHSRC) and College of Medicine Research Ethics Committee (COMREC) by providing advice and training to ethics committee members.