The origins of the Bioethics Centre date back to 1985 when a Bioethics Unit was established within the Department of Medicine by Professor Solomon Benatar (who was then also Head of the Department of Medicine). Formal approval for the Bioethics Centre was obtained in 1992. The Bioethics Centre remained within the Department of Medicine until 2008, when it shifted to the Dean’s Office. In 2009, it was repositioned under the joint auspices of the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Department of Philosophy. Professor S. Benatar continued as Director until the end of 2012. 

Between 2001 and 2010 nearly a hundred mid-career health care professionals from South Africa and other African countries participated in a US NIH Fogarty International Center funded capacity building programme for research ethics on humans. More information is avialable on the IRENSA (International Research Ethics Network in Southern Africa) programme.

More on the history of Bioethics at the University of Cape Town...