Racism and Bioethics: The Myth of Color Blindness

Am J Bioeth. 2021 Feb;21(2):28-32. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1851812. Epub 2020 Dec 8.

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.

MeSH terms

  • Bioethics*
  • Color Vision Defects*
  • Humans
  • Morals
  • Racism*