Exploring the Letter 'H' in ASBH: Insights from a Junior Bioethicist

Keisha Ray, a junior bioethicist, believes that the integration of bioethics and humanities is crucial for her research project to be complete. In a plenary session at the 2020 annual meeting of The American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), Ray argued that this integration is necessary to reveal innovative solutions to health issues, especially those affecting marginalized populations.

Ray's primary research project focuses on the intersection of structural inequities and social determinants of health and their influence on black individuals' generally poor health outcomes and experiences with health care. Her work underscores the importance of considering both bioethical and humanities perspectives to fully understand and address these issues.

Grant giving institutions that fund bioethics and humanities research should prioritize projects that meet their requirements, including those that intersect bioethics and humanities. According to Ray, this approach can lead to groundbreaking research that addresses health disparities and promotes social justice.

Centre directors in medical schools should encourage their faculty to centre their work in both humanities and bioethics and reward those efforts. This approach can foster a more comprehensive understanding of health issues and promote a more equitable healthcare system.

The current positioning of ASBH emphasizes the strong integration of bioethics and humanities as essential for the field’s growth. This stance positively influences the academic careers of young bioethics researchers by encouraging diverse methodological approaches and collaborative opportunities. However, Ray suggests that the advice to make work distinctly bioethics prioritizes hubris and ego over the research, and implies that research into racial justice is not truly bioethics.

In a statement on racial injustice and professionalism in bioethics and health humanities, ASBH recently acknowledged that racism and racial injustice stand in direct opposition to the goals of the society. Ray's research agenda poses a problem for the advice to make her work distinctly bioethics, as it may stifle the progress of junior bioethicists whose research involves social justice issues and racial issues.

To set a clear example, ASBH should prioritize presentations, workshops, and plenary sessions that are both bioethics and humanities in nature. This approach can help bioethics maintain its position as a leading field of study suited to aid social progression and be a driving force in contemporary social justice issues that affect marginalized populations.

In conclusion, for bioethics to be a proponent of social justice and an advocate for vulnerable populations, it must embrace humanities. By doing so, bioethicists can theorize what justice for all means in name and in practice, and gain insight into human nature and what it means to live a life of well-being. This integrated approach can help us better understand and address health disparities and promote a more equitable healthcare system.