The vocation of health care is often framed in universalist terms: clinicians are pledged to uphold core ethical commitments—beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and autonomy—irrespective of patients’ identities or circumstances. This project interrogates how “universal” health care ethics are interpreted and enacted when clinicians care for “others” in contexts of inequality. We explore the dynamics of compassion, justice, and professional duty in settings where advantaged and disadvantaged populations live in close proximity yet experience radically different life conditions. The central research questions investigate which ethical obligations are understood as universal in medicine, how these obligations come under pressure in encounters with frequently stigmatized groups, and whether clinicians apply them consistently across lines of race, class, nationality, and conflict.

Employing a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach that integrates philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and public health, the research combines conceptual analysis with preliminary empirical work in two paired case studies: Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories and the North/South Sides of Chicago. We will examine how health care providers rationalize inconsistencies in clinical ethics; how they think about justice in their relationships with patients, colleagues, and institutions; and whether they express optimism or pessimism about the possibility of a just medical system.

A key focus is on initiatives designed to improve care for “others,” especially those that incorporate humanistic education—history, literature, film, and related media—to cultivate cultural and structural competency. We will assess the perceived effectiveness of these efforts and ask whether they expand clinicians’ “moral circles” or mitigate “compassion collapse.” Anticipated outcomes include a shared interdisciplinary lexicon, a cross-disciplinary methodological framework, and concrete proposals for future interventions that can strengthen compassion and justice in divided health care landscapes.