Womanist Ethics as a Contribution to Bioethics

Abstract

This essay argues that womanism, a social theory focused on the embodied lives of Black women, can be useful to bioethicists as they consider health care ethics during a pandemic—and beyond. A general social justice-oriented ethical framework is helpful to begin a conversation on pandemic ethics, but it does not directly lead to the kind of on-the-margins-of-society framework that is necessary to increase health equity and justice. With particular concern for poor Black women, I discuss three main reasons that such an ethics framework needs to incorporate womanist ethics: the feminization of poverty, lack of access to high-quality health care, and rape and other historical violence against Black women. I conclude by proposing that an understanding of womanism as a correlative to the Black Lives Matter clarion call can create an ethical narrative in bioethics that can exist beyond times of pandemic.