Like many fields, bioethics has been constrained to thinking to race in terms of colorblindness, the idea that ideal deliberation would ignore race and hence prevent bias. There are practical and ethically significant problems with colorblind approaches to ethical deliberation, and important reasons why race is ethically relevant. Future discourse needs to understand how and why race is relevant in bioethics.

Clinicians in contemporary practice are getting accustomed to their clinical decision making being constantly questioned: by health plans, clinic and hospital administrators, and by patients. Share...