Racism and Bioethics: The Myth of Color Blindness

Abstract

Like many fields, bioethics has been constrained to thinking to race in terms of colorblindness, the idea that ideal deliberation would ignore race and hence prevent bias. There are practical and ethically significant problems with colorblind approaches to ethical deliberation, and important reasons why race is ethically relevant. Future discourse needs to understand how and why race is relevant in bioethics.

Keywords:

• Race and culture/ethnicity
• rationing/resource allocation

This article is referred to by:

Beyond the Medical Model: Retooling Bioethics for the Work Ahead

Against the Reification of Race in Bioethics: Anti-Racism without Racial Realism

Counteracting COVID-19 Healthcare Inequity: Supporting Antiracist Practices at Bedside

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True Colors: Whiteness in Bioethics

Putting Anti-Racism into Practice as a Healthcare Ethics Consultant

Can a Global Bioethical Lens Engender Color Blindness? An Examination of Public Health Disasters

Addressing Racism in Medicine Requires Tackling the Broader Problem of Epistemic Injustice

Beyond Seeing Race: Centering Racism and Acknowledging Agency Within Bioethics