Medical Migration in Africa: Stemming the Tide of Brain Drain

This chapter focuses on the migration of skilled healthcare workers from Africa to the rich countries of the Global North, a phenomenon known as the medical brain drain. I examine this phenomenon from an African moral perspective, a viewpoint that is often neglected in bioethical debates. I argue that medical migration is a betrayal of the African notions of personhood, community, and individual responsibility. However, I also maintain that appealing to African moral values alone is not likely to stop the migration of healthcare workers from the continent. Medical migration is demand driven, and the focus must shift away from the individual migrants to the destination countries themselves, as the latter bear more moral responsibility for exacerbating the already fragile healthcare systems in African countries. To promote global justice in health, the recruitment of doctors from Africa by rich nations must be criminalized in the destination countries themselves. The latter have a responsibility to avoid harming the vulnerable in Africa.