Environmental injustice at center of new essay by Keisha Ray


By Angela Gomez, McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics
May 28, 2021

The latest issue of Hastings Center Report includes an essay by Keisha Ray, PhD, entitled “In the Name of Racial Justice: Why Bioethics Should Care about Environmental Toxins”. In the essay, Ray discusses environmental injustices threatening the health of those who live in predominately Black, Latinx, and indigenous neighborhoods, especially given the disproportionate presence of toxic landfills, oil refineries, and chemical plants in these places. Examples from Louisiana, Mississippi, Houston, TX, and Flint, MI, are discussed. Ray expresses that bioethics—a field with professionals from many areas— has the power to urge change regarding environmental injustices and members of vulnerable racial and class groups.