Ames Dhai

Professor Dhai is the Director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. She established the Centre in 2007. The Centre, which runs Masters and PHD programs in Bioethics and Health Law, has local and international recognition as a leading Centre in these disciplines and in 2013 was awarded the World Medical Association Co-operating Centre and the South African Unit of the UNESCO International Network in Bioethics status. Professor Dhai serves on several policy making bodies in the country and is currently the President of the South African Medical Association. She also serves regularly as a consultant / expert advisor for the World Health Organisation, is on the WHO’s African Advisory Committee for Health Research and Development. She serves on the World Medical Association’s (WMA) Working Group on Health Databases and Biobanks where she is involved in developing international policy. She participated in the WMA’S Working Group on amendments to the current Declaration of Helsinki and in activities of the Institutes of Medicine (USA), and the National Academies of Sciences (USA). Professor Dhai is an ethicist of international standing who can be credited with entrenching bioethics as an integral aspect of health sciences in SA. She started off her career as a medical doctor, specialised in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and then went on to graduate with a Masters in Law and Ethics.