Health Disparities
This term describes differences in health outcomes that are avoidable, unfair, and unjust.
What are health inequities?
This historical study that ended in 1972 became a key example of racial injustice in medical research.
What is the Tuskegee Syphilis Study?
This term refers to wealthy countries obtaining far more vaccines than needed.
What is vaccine hoarding?
This landmark 1973 Supreme Court case established a federal right to abortion (and was later overturned).
What is Roe v. Wade?
This type of care rationing assigns scarce resources based on urgency and chance of recovery.
What is medical triage?
Used especially during emergencies, the sickest who can benefit the most are treated first.
Black women in the U.S. are three to four times more likely to die from this medical event compared to white women.
What is childbirth (maternal mortality)?
The Principle within the Belmont Report which requires a fair distribution of benefits and burdens.
What is justice?
The idea that all people deserve the highest attainable standard of health.
What is the right to health?
This includes safe housing, clean water, and access to medical care not just medicine.
A framework developed by Black feminists focusing on the right to have or not have children and parent safely.
What is reproductive justice?
During COVID-19, using age, disability, or social worth to deny care violated this ethical principle.
What is fairness or non-discrimination?
Lack of transportation, insurance, or access to providers are just a few examples of these non-medical factors that shape health.
What are social determinants of health?
These are conditions in someone’s environment that affect their health like where they live, work, and go to school.
Henrietta Lacks' cells were taken without this type of permission, which is now a requirement in research.
What is informed consent?
This organization sets global health guidelines and declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
What is the World Health Organization (WHO)?
The WHO responds to global outbreaks and helps countries build health systems.
Indigenous, Black, and disabled women were disproportionately targeted by this unethical practice in the 20th century.
What is forced sterilization?
States and hospitals performed surgeries to stop people from having children without their consent.
Allocating resources to those most likely to benefit reflects this ethical framework.
What is utilitarianism?
This approach tries to maximize total good or save the most lives.
This landmark 1966 article exposed the unequal treatment of Black patients in Southern hospitals.
What is the Tuskegee Study or “Racial Differences in Hospital Care”?
These boards oversee human research to ensure ethical protections.
What are Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)?
IRBs check if studies are safe, fair, and respectful before they begin.
Programs that use low-cost labor or test drugs in poorer countries without long-term community benefit are accused of this ethical violation.
What is exploitation?
Barriers to birth control access in low-income communities are examples of this injustice.
What is contraceptive inequity?
This problem occurs when marginalized patients receive lower-quality care because of structural barriers.
What is systemic bias or structural racism?
This federal policy prohibits discrimination in healthcare programs receiving federal funding.
(Title ___)
What is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act?
Title VI makes it illegal for any federally funded hospital or clinic to treat people differently because of race, color, or national origin.
This concept describes how historically marginalized groups are over-studied in risky research but under-included in beneficial trials.
What is exploitation or inequitable subject selection?
Example: poor communities being used to test drugs, but not getting access once those drugs are approved.
This term refers to the reproduction of global inequalities in health research and healthcare, often between the Global North and South.
What is structural global injustice?
Examples: rich countries controlling patents, drug prices, or who gets new treatments first.
This unethical practice involves making assumptions about a patient’s reproductive choices based on race, class, or disability.
What is reproductive coercion or bias?
Policies that ensure equal access to organs for transplant are guided by this ethical principle.
What is justice (or distributive justice)?
Transplants must be given fairly not based on wealth, race, or status.