Research Projects and Interests

K. Vargas Barreto at Oxford’s Global Health and Bioethics International Conference before her presentation, “Decolonizing Bioethics: Intersectionality and Three Amendments.”

Doctoral Research Project (Dissertation):

Liberating Bioethics Through Agape: A Feminist Perspective from the Periphery

Abstract: Despite the vast number of cultures and peoples that reside in the West, ethical action in bioethics is determined through the perspective of la Totalidad, which does not include the Other or individuals from the periphery. In my dissertation project, I argue that the universalization of U.S. clinical bioethics (la bioética estadounidense) and the coloniality of knowledge that extends from it are, at its core, imperialistic in nature and result in the exclusion of patients with intersectional identities. While clinical bioethics was first conceived as a critical tool for medicine, the acceptance of principlism as the central theory in the field and its moral foundation in the “common morality” has severely reduced the critical aspect of clinical bioethics. Using a case analysis, I demonstrate principlism's weaknesses in addressing the complexities that arise from marginalized identities.

Instead, I propose a more comprehensive and suitable framework for clinical bioethics, a feminist and Dusselian Agapean framework, which can address patients at both the center and the periphery of bioethics. Synthesizing the critical work of feminist bioethicists and Latin American philosophers through the ethics of liberation and Intervention Bioethics, I developed a practical approach that is more inclusive and successful than principlism. The Agapean framework holds Dusselian agape as its material principle and maintains the protection of the worst off in society and the prevention of possible harm through the centralization of relational autonomy, playful narrativity, a need for advocacy, and social justice through equal participation. Using this approach, I address the coloniality of power and gender found in our way of producing knowledge in clinical bioethics.

This dissertation fills a gap in the field by addressing the colonial aspects of mainstream bioethics and proposing a needed alternative. Moreover, by providing English translations to critical passages from Spanish and Portuguese bioethics texts, it shines a light on voices from the periphery, which have been traditionally invisibilized.

Publications:

Additional Thesis Projects:

  • One argument that has been given against biotechnological advances, like memory modification, has been its impact on authenticity. Thus, by examining the way that we act and the moral impact of authenticity in practical matters, I argue that authenticity proves to be irrelevant in moral decision-making. Therefore, it shouldn’t be an opposing force against different technological advances.

    I recently brought up the argument on the necessity to explicate the normative centralization of authenticity in my paper, "A Call for Authentic Love: Is That Truly What We Want?" (forthcoming, AJOB Neuroscience).

  • Through this thesis project, I tackled the moral dilemma of home birth and argued that because giving birth is a transformative experience, women may morally choose to engage in this riskier practice.

  • Through this research funded by the NSF, I exposed our current urban designs and settings as obstacles for women in their search for well-being and human flourishing using Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach.

Current Research Work at IIT’s Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions

“Lab in a Vial” Project

This project is funded by the Walder Foundation, as part of their Science Innovation program.

The goal is to develop a rapid test for detecting antibiotic-resistant bacteria or other similar infections without sending biological samples to a lab. The project is divided between the scientists working on developing this technology and the Ethics Team, of which I am a member. The Ethics Team is currently in the process of writing the paper in which we will publish our results.

AI, Injustice & Sustainability

The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions is currently working on a project researching some of the negative effects of AI on the environment and the injustices that come about as a consequence.

Moreover, I am currently in the process of organizing a Webinar on Sustainable AI, which will take place in Spring 2025 and which I will moderate.

Future Projects

  • Conversations around new drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have highlighted biases around weight and misconceptions around obesity as a “patient’s choice.” Biases around weight have been proven to negatively affect women’s health. The next step for the Agapean framework is to be applied to the topic of obesity bias in Western health care. I anticipate that my framework will be able to better address the concerns of patients who have been marginalized, and even misdiagnosed, due to biases around weight.

  • Since the popularization of different generative artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT, the development of AI tools to recognize AI generated content has become a necessity. However, it has been noticed that these tools consistently fail when encountering non-English languages. I aim to explore this topic further and research if this failure is due to racist biases. As we become more reliant on these tools, it is essential that we ensure they are free from epistemic biases and that they do not create spaces where already vulnerable groups are further marginalized.

  • The management of invasive species is one that deserves more detailed attention, especially as AI grows in popularity and new technologies are being proposed for the identification and trapping of these species.