Project Director: Josephine Johnston

Funder: The Greenwall Foundation

This project was a collaboration between an independent antiracism task force of bioethicists from across the United States and The Hastings Center, as part of the Center’s health equity initiative. The  mission of the project was to envision, frame, and catalyze new ideas and new actions to strengthen the ability of bioethics to address intersectional injustices. The task force examined historical factors that continue to impact marginalized people and proposed concrete actions for the field of bioethics to take the lead in efforts to remedy racial injustice and health inequities in the United States.

Special Report Guest Editors

• Faith E. Fletcher, PhD, MA, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine
• Keisha S. Ray PhD, McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center
• Virginia A. Brown, PhD, MA, Department of Population Health, University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School
• Patrick T. Smith, PhD, MDiv, MA, Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine, Duke University.

The Antiracism Task Force

• Elizabeth Bogdan-Lovis, MA
  Michigan State University Center for Bioethics and Social Justice (retired)
• Vence L. Bonham Jr., JD
  Social and Behavioral Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Human Genome Research Institute
• Virginia A. Brown, PhD, MA
  Department of Population Health, University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School
• Claretta Y. Dupree, PhD, RN
  U.S. Navy (retired)
• Faith E. Fletcher, PhD, MA
  Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine
• Vanessa Hiratsuka, PhD, MPH
  Center for Human Development, University of Alaska Anchorage
• Wendy Jiang, MPH
  University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine
• Jennifer McCurdy, PhD, BSN, MH, HEC-C
  Michigan State University Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
• Nneka Sederstrom, PhD, MPH, MA, FCCP, FCCM
  Hennepin Healthcare
• Roberto Sirvent, JD, PhD
  Department of Social Sciences, Hope International University
• Patrick T. Smith, PhD, MDiv, MA
  Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University
• Stephen Sodeke, PhD, MA
  Center for Biomedical Research, Tuskegee University
• Joanne C. Suarez, MBE
  Latinx Bioethics

Publications and Events from the Project 

“A Critical Moment in Bioethics: Reckoning with Anti-Black Racism Through Intergenerational Dialogue,” a Hastings Center special report, March-April 2022.

“Addressing Anti-Black Racism: A Bioethics Call to Action”

Event: “Anti-Black Racism, Health & Health Care: A Reckoning—and a Path Forward,” a virtual discussion with the editors of the special report, Faith E. Fletcher, Keisha Ray, Patrick T. Smith, and Virginia A. Brown, moderated by Michele Goodwin, June 9, 2022.

Event: “Critical Moment in Bioethics: Reckoning with Anti-Blackness Through Intergenerational Dialogue,” October 2021, ASBH annual meeting

Hastings Bioethics Forum: “Reckoning with Anti-Black Racism in Bioethics: Key Takeaways,” by Faith E. Fletcher, Keisha Ray, Claretta Y. Dupree, and Virginia A. Brown, December 31, 2021