Bioethics for whom? Abolition bioethics in times of crisis

Abstract: For more than two centuries, abolitionists have argued that morally corrupt institutions deserve a level of criticality beyond that offered by reform. This pursuit of justice has continually evolved, with a growing number of scholars taking up the mantle to imagine a transformation of healthcare and education. However, in 2025, we are in a moment when health care, research, and education are under attack. Many of us who approach these institutions with a critical lens towards transformation now wrestle with a natural instinct to protect our institutions and the status quo. Yet, the current moment is only laying bare the values and structural conditions baked into our models of care and education.

Bioethics sits in an uneasy position: it often does the work of protecting institutions and attending to those with power, sometimes at the expense of marginalized people. We are witnessing an unsafe dismantling of structures that will further exacerbate disparities. In this moment when academic medicine, a bedrock of bioethics, feels threatened, how do we both protect our institutions – and allow our work to continue – while also challenging what many have viewed as an unjust status quo? An abolitionist approach is fundamentally about safety, community care and reallocation of resources to those most impacted by structural violence. On this panel, we ask how an abolitionist approach to ethics can help us reimagine systems of care, learning and research that uphold the values of justice and beneficence in a time of crisis.

Keywords: Abolition