Meeting the Moment: Bioethics in the Time of Black Lives Matter

February 2, 2021 - 1:00pm

Camisha Russell, PhD
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
​University of Oregon

Abstract: What does a deep and genuine commitment to the value of Black lives require from bioethicists and practitioners of biomedicine? Race and racism are bioethical issues. While they are also political, legal, psychological, and historical issues (and so many other things besides), race and racism are very much issues of health, both mental and physical, public and individual, and they must play a central role in any serious discussion of how to ensure the biological future of human beings and the planet. The main focus of this lecture will be the subtle and insidious ways that the idea of race and the legacies of white supremacy often frame the scientific and medical worldview such that Black and other lives are devalued or disregarded altogether in biomedicine and healthcare systems, and possibilities for change. 

View online here.

Baruch A. Brody Lecture in Bioethics sponsored by the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Houston Methodist, and the Rice University Department of Philosophy

Location and Address

Online