by Keisha Ray, PhD Here is a list of just some of the things that contribute to Black people’s inequitable access to proper health outcomes and health care: Structural and Institutional racism Interpersonal racism and race-related stressors Healthcare providers’ biases Health care policies Lack of political power Inequitable voting rights Incarceration rates Inequitable access to social determinants of health Environmental racism Birthing mortality Police brutality Poverty Minimum wage policies No universal health care, childcare, or parental leave Inequitable student loan debt Racist housing ..read more

Arisa Marshall Most students of color know what it feels like to be the only non-white person in a classroom; the isolating responsibility of being the only person of color in these types of settings is too familiar to many of us. At this year’s American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) annual conference, a similar feeling of unease and responsibility set in with me. ASBH holds an annual conference in order to connect individuals across disciplines for the purpose of providing a platform for knowledge sharing in the fields of clinical and academic bioethics, as well as medical and h ..read more

This editorial appears in the Jan 2022 issue of the American Journal of Bioethics. Joel E. Pacyna and Richard R. Sharp Empirical bioethics research has become an established field of study, with its own unique goals, vocabulary, and methods (Camporesi and Cavaliere 2021; Lee and McCarty 2016; Sugarman 2010), and with many universities and academic health centers hosting bioethics programs that support a variety of educational and translational research activities. Appropriately, the success of these programs has prompted closer scrutiny of their impact and relevan ..read more

Steven H Miles, MD For the first part of my medical career, I worked in intensive care units, hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes. Every morning I got a note telling me which of my patients were hospitalized. I was expected to see them. I made house calls to families in crisis (although this was being suppressed and so I did this off duty). When families or patients were frightened, usually by medical instability or the imminence of death, I wrote my phone number on my business card and gave it to them ..read more

Kyle Ferguson, PhD Arthur Caplan, PhD The unfairness of “boosters” might seem self-evident: Millions of Americans are receiving third doses of COVID-19 vaccines before billions in poorer countries receive their firsts. Global vaccine distribution is starkly unequal, and now Americans are getting even more of a precious resource. The severe disparities in vaccine access and coverage around the world lead some people to feel that rich countries’ “booster” campaigns are unethical. But that feeling, no matter how good-natured and sincere, is mistaken ..read more

by Mary Faith Marshall, PhD, FCCM, HEC-C You might ask what sunbathing topless at the beach in Ocean City, Maryland and having an abortion have in common. Well, I’ve done both, (more than once), and I have a personal stake in continued access to them both—as should all persons with breasts who don’t identify as cisgendered men, and all persons capable of becoming pregnant. Given the exceptional focus on the Supreme Court’s recent hearing on S. B. 8, (the Texas “bounty hunter” abortion law banning abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat and granting enforcement to citizen vigilantes) you ..read more

by Delaney Maxwell With the rise of multiomic research and databases, there is also an increased risk to the privacy of research participants and biological data. Beginning this illustration, I decided to take a neutral tone approach as the intent of the article was not to scare but to present the possibilities and propose a new framework for assessing these risks. My concept was similar to a where’s waldo page – identifying a specific person amongst a big crowd – but the viewer has found who they are looking for ..read more

A ..read more

A ..read more

A ..read more