The principle that underlies medicine and its practice is that of prolongation of life on earth, especially as people of all cultures prefer life to death on earth. One can even say that the Hypocratic oath attests to this in principle and practice. Also, the arguments about mercy killing derive from this principle. Once it is accepted in principle that man prefers, or should prefer, life to death on earth, it seems absurd to see how one can prefer to terminate one’s life either through mercy killing or suicide than to continue to live until death comes naturally. The critical point in our discussion, therefore, concerns the method and practice of medicine. The efficacy of medicine in the developed, developing and underdeveloped countries will depend on cultural beliefs as demarcated by scientific and non-scientific cultures. Also, the differences in method and practice would be seen to hinge on different cultural beliefs, education, scientific intelligence, and technology. Typical examples shall be provided in superstitious beliefs in traditional medicine and practice. Superstitious beliefs have led to personal explanation in medicine and its practice whereas the employment of empirical method,

experimentation, tests and verification have led to impersonal (scientific) explanation in western medicine. Again, the metaphysical nature of certain aspects of traditional medicine that do not subject themselves to scientific analyses, rigorous tests and experimentation that characterize western empirical (scientific) method often established by objective knowledge through text books, stand between western orthodox medicine and Yoruba (African) traditional medicine. It is this gap that has to be bridged. In this connection, it will appear that the road to a further development and growth of medicine in this age of globalization is through convergence rather than divergence of medicine and cultures as well as a synthetic unity of empirical and metaphysical (non empirical) medicines. I believe that this will lead to increase rather than decrease in medical knowledge. A study of child care in Yoruba traditional medical practice with the development of particular herbal ingredients (formula) into soap for the treatment of teething problems will be highlighted so as to establish its possible efficacy at the global scale.