Racial injustice. Lack of health care for undocumented immigrants. Prisoners on hunger strike. Each day physicians treat patients of all ethnicities and backgrounds who face limitations in their ability to access health care and receive quality treatment. Physicians—individually and as a profession—must be dedicated to ensuring that non-medically relevant differences do not alter how patients are treated or the care they receive.
The October issue of the AMA Journal of Ethics investigates the role of medicine in the ongoing fight for human rights and civil liberties in America. It also investigates where physicians must stand on several hot-button issues in American society.
This issue features:
- “Health and social justice: The role of today’s physician.” Great vigilance is required to ensure that all physicians actively participate and hold one another accountable in the struggle for social justice. This author examines how physicians can take action in their daily lives to bring social justice to the medical world.
- “Should an undocumented immigrant receive a heart transplant?” Arguments offered for denying a transplant should not be based upon a worst-case prediction of what the patient’s future might hold. These authors examine immigration’s effect on organ transplants and how a physician can traverse a rare situation.
- “#BlackLivesMatter: Physicians must stand for racial justice.” Disparities in access to health care exacerbate the harm that social structures and policies cause to the health of people of color. White Coats for Black Lives National Working Group examines the physician’s role when it comes to race and equality regarding treatment of all individuals.
In the journal’s October podcast, Joia Mukherjee, MD, discusses how Harvard’s Partners In Health pursues social justice by seeking to strengthen health care systems in low-income countries. Dr. Mukherjee is the chief medical officer of Partners In Health and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
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