LOS MARGINADOS: Racism and bioethics

domingo, 10 de abril de 2016

Racism and bioethics

Racism and bioethics

by Xavier Symons | 9 Apr 2016 |

A new edition of the American Journal of Bioethics considers the role that bioethics can play in addressing racism in healthcare, education, and general society.

Contributors cover a broad range of topics, including justice and racism, the treatment of undocumented immigrants in the healthcare and education systems, ethics education in medical schools, and ‘intersectional’ approaches to addressing racial inequalities.

Loyola University bioethicist Kayhan Parsi argues in his guest editorial that bioethics should have as a predominant concern the elimination of structural racism in medical schools, healthcare organisations, and, indeed, the discipline itself:

“If we want to eliminate structural racism, we have to change the structures… leadership in bioethics should strive to be more diverse and inclusive. The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities has never had a president of color…we need to cultivate more leadership opportunities for people of color in the field of bioethics.”

In a commentary, Abbas Rattani notes that “The bioethics discipline lacks a firm presence in HBMSs [historically black medical schools]” in the US. Rattani argues for the establishment of bioethics programs in all of these schools.

Melissa Weddle of Oregon Health and Science University argues that bioethicists have a limited role and scope for addressing institutional injustice, and that a concerted social effort is needed to adequately deal with entrenched racism:

“Addressing the racial injustices of our society is a mission that belongs to educators, journalists, policymakers, legal professionals, spiritual leaders, legislators, funders of research, law enforcement workers, hospital administrators, public health professionals, and all who participate in provision of medical care. Racism permeates every level of our society, and significant societal change will require sustained efforts within many disciplines by those with diverse experience and training.”

- See more at: http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/racism-and-bioethics/11829#sthash.wj0OL5ra.dpuf

In events which seem copied from the script of a B-grade potboiler, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has, at the age of 60, just discovered that he is not who he thought he was. After taking a DNA test to disprove rumours that he was not his father's son, he learned that the rumours were true. His real father was the last private secretary of Wnston Churchill, Sir Anthony Montague Browne.

Despite his deep religious faith, the Archbishop seems quite shaken by the news. He surmounted a difficult childhood with alcoholic parents to become a successful oil executive and then an Anglican priest. He had no idea that the ne'er-do-well whom he regarded as his estranged father was not. In an interview with The Telegraph [London] he said:

“My own experience is typical of many people. To find that one’s father is other than imagined is fairly frequent. To be the child of families with great difficulties in relationships, with substance abuse or other matters, is far too normal.

“Although there are elements of sadness, and even tragedy in my father’s case, this is a story of redemption and hope from a place of tumultuous difficulty and near despair in several lives ... I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes.”

Although this is just an anecdote, it confirms what I've always regarded as one of the most important principles in contemporary bioethics: that every child deserves to know his or her biological parents. Archbishop Welby is better prepared than most to survive a personal earthquake like this, but it is an earthquake. To know who we are, to have a secure personal identity, is an important dimension of our autonomy.