Bioethics for the People

What counts as “bioethics”? What perspectives and topics have been marginalized? In this episode, Devan and Tyler talk with Professor Keisha Ray about her work in black bioethics and why it is necessary.

#BlackBioethics

Read more from Keisha Ray

• Black Bioethics and how the failures of the profession paved the way for its existence

• Intersectionality and the dangers of white empathy when treating black patients

• Inefficient pain management for black patients show that there is a fine line between ‘inhumane’ and ‘superhuman’

Dr. Ray’s Reading Essentials (as mentioned on the podcast)

• Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to Present

• Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

• John Hoberman, Black and Blue: The Origins and Consequences of Medical Racism

• Damon Tweedy, Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine

In this episode, Devan and Tyler check-in with professor Tom Tomlinson to discuss some of the misconceptions and myths that surround end of life decision-making and clinical ethics.

Read more of professor Tomlinson’s published work:

• “Death by Neurological Criteria:Caring for Families amid Tragedy,” Linacre Quarterly (2019)

• “Competence in Plain English” Hastings Center Report (2016)

• “Moral Concerns and the Willingness to Donate to a Research Biobank,” JAMA (2015)

• “DNR Orders and Medical Futility,” JAMA (1995)

In this week’s true-crime-adjacent Halloween special, Tyler and Devan talk to Darian Goldin Stahl about the infamous grave robbers William Burke and William Hare, who murdered 16 people in order to sell their corpses to the anatomist Robert Knox for dissection. Darian walks us through the story as well as what has changed in the procurement and use of cadavers in medical education.

• See more of Darian’s art here

• Read Devan and Darian’s book, Imaging and Imagining Illness

• Read more about body brokers (Reuters)

• Mary Roach’s book, Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers

• Read more about skin books

As the world looks forward to a Covid-19 vaccine, there are differing views about if, when, and who will get this vaccine. This episode we discuss the future of a Covid-19 vaccine and why anyone wouldn't want to be first in line once the vaccine is distributed. We discuss vaccine hesitancy with Mark Navin.

Check out more of Dr. Navin’s work:

• Malm, H., Navin, M. “Pox Parties for Grannies? Chickenpox, Exogenous Boosting, and Harmful Injustices,” American Journal of Bioethics 20(9):45-57.

Learn more about the government’s Covid -19 vaccine distribution guidelines:

• Health and Human Services Distribution Guidelines

• Centers for Disease Control Vaccine Planning Guidance

Dr. Ana S. Iltis

Most professions have a Society or Association that hosts conferences to attend, present innovations at, and mingle with similarly minded folks. Bioethics is no different. This episode, Tyler and Devan recount their experiences going to the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) annual conference. They chat with professor Ana Iltis, the current president of the ASBH, about how she became a bioethicist and who comes to the ASBH.

Read more about Dr. Iltis’ work on:

• Organ Transplantation

• Mental Health Research

• Gene Therapy

• Fairness in Research

Learn more about the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities here

The coronavirus pandemic has touched nearly every aspect of our lives, often in challenging ways. One of the strangest changes is that bioethical questions are on the front of newspapers, discussed at dinner tables, and seem more critically important than ever.

This episode, Tyler and Devan discuss how questions about bioethics and what it means to be a bioethicists has changed during the pandemic. They talk with Dr. Matthew Wynia about his work in bioethics and his predictions of what will change in bioethics as a result of Covid-19.

Check-out Dr. Wynia’s amazing podcast Hard Call

Read more from Dr. Wynia:

• “Ensuring Adequate Palliative and Hospice Care During Covid-19 Surges”

• “Ethical Triage Demands a Better Survivability Score”

• “Forced Choices: Ethical Challenges in Cardiology During the Covid-19 Pandemic”

• “Ventilator Triage Policies During the Covid-19 Pandemic at U.S. Hospitals Associated with the Association of Bioethics Program Directors”

• “Scarcity in the Covid-19 Pandemic”

This season we explore what it means to be a ‘bioethicist.’ Through conversations with leaders in the practice and study of bioethics, we discuss religion & bioethics, disability, professionalization of bioethics, clinical ethics, and much more.