The Licensed Sex Predator Exposé- Stories for Moral Decision-making in Healthcare Delivery in Ghana

Abstract

Narrative ethics, the use of literary narratives to inform ethical deliberations, provides a framework for ethical decision making. Sometimes deployed as a tool, narrative ethics helps explore ethical issues by engaging people in storytelling. The diversity of human cultures reflects in the diversity of human needs and desires. Stories and narratives can capture these subtle differences to assist agents in making decisions that are sensitive to human uniqueness and diversity. Training of healthcare professionals, provision of healthcare, and resolution of clinical moral dilemmas gain a lot from narrative ethics. Historically, folktales in Ghana, such as Ananse stories, have been used in teaching moral theories, frameworks, and principles. Hence, there is a space for the practice of narrative ethics in Ghanaian healthcare system. One approach to the practice of narrative ethics is the use of canonical narratives, especially for teaching ethics. The case of a quack healthcare professional in Ghana, which is an investigative exposé by The Fourth Estate – ‘The Licensed Sex Predator’ – serves as a typical canonical narrative that demonstrates, amongst others, how patient vulnerability can directly place patients in harm’s way in Ghana. This essay seeks to recommend this investigative journalism exposé as a contemporary Ghanaian canonical narrative that can be used in the teaching of narrative ethics, and the understanding of patient vulnerability in healthcare in Ghana. This narrative also brings to the fore the need for policymakers to empower patients, as a path to patient safety.