Beyond Race: Toward an Ethically Integrated Model of Healthcare Justice
Julian Ungar-Sargon
Abstract
Despite advances in medicine, race continues to be
used as a diagnostic and therapeutic heuristic in clinical practice,
perpetuating harmful health disparities. This article examines how Dr. Andrea
Deyrup's pioneering work at Duke University has exposed the scientific
inadequacy of race-based medicine, demonstrating that racialized health
disparities stem from socioeconomic and structural determinants rather than
inherent biological differences. Drawing on ecosocial theory, liberation
theology, and the therapeutic vision articulated in my work at jyungar.com, we
propose a healing model that centers justice, narrative presence, and sacred
advocacy—one that displaces racial typologies with relational, context-based
care that honors the patient as sacred text.