Tucked inside the Neuroscience Building at the University of Cape Town lies a small but formidable hub of ethical innovation: The EthicsLab. Spearheaded by a passionate team of critical scholars from the fields of sociology, philosophy, political science and anthropology, the Lab is changing the way we think about health, technology, and moral responsibility—placing care, collaboration, and context at the centre of their work. 

What makes the EthicsLab so unique? It’s not just a space for academic theory. It’s a transformative initiative bridging the humanities and health sciences, grounded in the complex realities of South Africa’s healthcare system and the rapidly evolving landscape of AI.  Their cross-disciplinary projects and collaborations aim to inspire a new wave of scholars and practitioners who can merge theoretical knowledge with practical application and embed African perspectives into the ethical frameworks of healthcare, research and innovation.

Training for Real-World Dilemmas

One of the Lab’s flagship achievements is the development of Africa’s first MSc in Global Health Ethics—a pioneering programme designed to train a new generation of thinkers at the intersection of health, ethics, technology and policy. The programme, which was recently accredited by the national regulator, will be implemented from 2026 and promises to train a generation of students in the ethics of new and emerging health technologies shaping Africa’s healthcare realities.

Beyond the classroom, the EthicsLab is tackling one of healthcare’s most urgent challenges: moral distress among clinicians. South Africa’s doctors, nurses, and medical interns often face impossible, heart-wrenching decisions—deciding who receives limited treatment, how to navigate deeply rooted cultural values, or whether it’s ethical to discharge patients to the street. These are not abstract theories. These are lived, daily dilemmas.

“Our work is about care for the carers,” explains Dr Heidi Matisonn. “We’re developing a relational, practical approach to clinical ethics that supports clinicians across all levels, from interns in rural hospitals to senior consultants in city trauma units. The patients they treat come from very diverse cultures and socio-economic backgrounds, and they operate in a healthcare system that has been hollowed out by years of under-investment. We support them in building the ethical skills necessary to navigate this ethical minefield.” The team at the Ethics Lab are not medical doctors; however, their grounding in sociology, genomics, politics and philosophy equips them to teach other critical skills.

From Philosophy to the Ward Floor

The Lab’s work is deeply grounded in African values—solidarity, ubuntu, cultural humility and conviviality—and informed by disciplines that add another level to the traditional medical education: philosophy, sociology, political science and relationality. The EthicsLab regularly hosts Clinical Ethics Forums, which are integral to their aim of fostering ethical resilience. These monthly in-person forums offer a supportive and solution-oriented environment for healthcare workers and senior students to discuss ethical challenges they encounter in their practice. “We’ve seen incredible engagement from district clinics like Retreat, where diverse, multidisciplinary teams come together—psychiatric nurses, interns, community service doctors—learning how to support each other and their patients,” says Dr Heidi Matisonn. Through this work, the Lab is helping build communities of ethical excellence in hospitals and clinics.  

AI Meets African Ethics

But clinical settings aren’t the only frontiers the Lab is advancing. As AI becomes embedded in everything from diagnostics to patient monitoring, the EthicsLab is leading the charge in shaping African-centred AI ethics. Their work challenges simplistic applications of “Ubuntu” as a tech-friendly buzzword and instead poses deeper questions: What does relationality mean for AI? How do we ensure African communities—especially the poor and marginalized—aren’t left behind or exploited in this new era? How can we leverage AI to build a just world?

The Lab’s team is working with the UCT AI community to push for ethical frameworks that reflect African values, environmental responsibility, and social justice. Their research explores everything from philosophical definitions of personhood in an AI age to community-driven ethics design and feminist approaches to human-technology boundaries.

Their Research Development Programme explores the intersection between new and emerging health technologies, ethics, and the African humanities, fostering cross-disciplinary research and research capacity through various coordinated activities. The innovative programme delves into technological innovation in areas like Artificial Intelligence (AI), neuroscience, and genomics, given their potential to radically transform what it means to be human. In an interconnected world of global and local hierarchies where these developments touch everyone, it is crucial to incorporate diverse global perspectives in ethical thinking. In response, the EthicsLab positions itself as an exciting multi-disciplinary platform for scholars from Africa and beyond to explore how the African humanities could and should inform the ethical questions posed by new and emerging technologies and vice versa.

Professor Jantina de Vries comments, “A vital goal of this programme is to open up convivial, critical spaces and opportunities for reflection and debate for scholars across the African continent working in sciences and humanities. We are also excited about the potential for science and technological innovation to create new opportunities for researchers in the African humanities.  Our vision is to bring the humanities into health sciences:  philosophical tools, logical reasoning, fallacies – all the things you learn on upper campus at UCT.  Creating the EthicsLab brings two siloed faculties together – you see the problems and the solutions.  That is what makes the EthicsLab unique – the solutions generated”.

Why Funding Matters Now

Despite their innovation, traction, and growing demand, the Lab faces a stark reality: they urgently need funding to sustain and expand their work.

The work is entirely soft-funded and has been affected by NIH funding cuts which has threatened the implementation of the MSc programme amongst others. The Lab’s clinical ethics programme needs support to scale across the country. Their trailblazing AI ethics research risks being silenced in a field that sorely needs African voices.

“This is the time to invest,” says Jantina de Vries. “We are not just theorising. We’re building something deeply practical, truly ground-breaking, and urgently necessary.” There are no clinical ethics training programmes in South Africa – the only ones on offer are in Europe and the USA. For now, the team is conducting research and developing a train-the-trainer programme as part of a Toolkit of ethics that they would like to make available to other places. What they are doing works – people who they have worked with come back for more and say that what they learned changed the way they care for their patients. The longer-term aim is to establish a clinical ethics training and support programme that ensures there is a pipeline of trained clinical ethics professionals that can support clinicians around the country.

They seek funding to take their work from pilot to permanence—to secure the Lab’s strategic leadership, fund scholarships, grow the training platform, publish cutting-edge research, and embed clinical ethics into South Africa’s healthcare fabric.

Professor Francis Nyamnjoh of UCT’s Department of Anthropology, and co-director of the EthicsLab, comments, “This article powerfully articulates the EthicsLab’s commitment to fostering a new era of ethical engagement. Bringing into conversation diverse disciplines, fields and areas of interest – from philosophy and sociology to medicine and AI – is not merely an academic exercise, but a crucial, convivial approach to navigate the complex ethical landscapes of health and technology in Africa and beyond. The EthicsLab is exemplary in its dedication to promoting interdisciplinarity in addressing the most pressing moral challenges of our time.”

A Call to the UCT Community

UCT alumni know the power of bold thinking and community-led solutions. The EthicsLab embodies this spirit: multidisciplinary, collaborative, and grounded in values of humility, kindness, conviviality and excellence.

The EthicsLab is committed to building a thriving community of African scholars who engage with the ethics of new and emerging health technologies from the perspective of the African humanities. They leverage African perspectives to better understand how we can live ethically in a technology-driven world.

As their motto declares: Another world is necessary. And we believe it is possible.

“We have to change the way we work and do things differently.  This is exciting work and we have a wonderful team. We still aspire to global impact and absolute excellence – but we ground our work firmly in the South African context.  We want to be the catalyst for ethical excellence and a technological future that is just for all,” commented Prof Jantina de Vries.

Now is the moment to stand with them. Whether you’re a philanthropist, funder, medical professional, or someone who believes in ethical leadership for a just future—your support can help make that world real.