This paper offers an examination of end of life decision making in Western and African cultures. While Western medical practice focuses on individual rights, autonomy and self-determination, African societies emphasize communitarian values. It argues that “advance directives” in Western medical practice put so much emphasis on the autonomy of the patient that as a result, they are inconsistent with African traditional morality. The paper further argues that contrary to Western medical practice, the African practice of making decisions on behalf of an incompetent patient is based on African conception of death and dying and African communal values. The paper concludes by stressing that in spite of the value of “advance directives” in Western medical practice, they can be criticized based on the problems of precedent autonomy and atomistic individualism respectively
