Open AccessCOVID 19: Bioethics, the racial line and ethical praxis
Author(s) -
Juliana Sassi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
diversitates
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1984-5073
DOI - 10.53357/kqlh5806
Subject(s) - bioethics , praxis , individualism , rationality , sociology , refugee , racism , covid-19 , capitalism , environmental ethics , political science , law , gender studies , medicine , politics , philosophy , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
This article reflects upon the limits and potential of bioethics in a society in which not only people's values are hierarchised along racial lines, but the public and private interests are also structurally antagonised. The author focused on the experience of migrants and asylum seekers in Ireland during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Developing a literature review on bioethics and race, the author locates this case study within the liberal rationality, which is individualist and ultimately values people according to the market needs. Applying the concept of racial capitalism to make sense of racialisation processes, the author claims the need to build ethics that is also practice, what she calls, ethical praxis.