Mona Khan

Reimagining Healthcare Education: A Framework for Bridging Abolition Medicine and Islamic Ethics
Zahra H. Khan
Columbia University
zhk2107@columbia.edu

Mona Y. Khan
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
mona.khan@rutgers.edu 

Narrative medicine and the health humanities are increasingly recognized for their transformative potential in medical education, with growing evidence pointing to their positive impact on health outcomes. One emerging approach gaining traction in the U.S. is the introduction of abolitionist theory and practice in healthcare education. First articulated in a 2020 Lancet article by Iwai, Khan, and DasGupta, abolition medicine draws on the long history of abolitionist traditions in the U.S. to challenge carceral logics in healthcare and to re-imagine medicine as rooted in anti-racist practice. While medical curricula continues to be shaped by Western paradigms, leaving critical gaps in tackling systemic health disparities, we wonder what abolition medicine could look like when applied in a non-Western context. This paper seeks to explore what it might mean to approach abolition medicine through an Islamic ethical framework, and how this integrated theory may better equip practitioners to deliver justice-oriented, equitable care. Islamic ethics, grounded in principles such as adl (justice), rahma (compassion), and fard kifaya (communal responsibility) shares abolition medicine’s commitment to dismantling systems of harm and centering collective care. Together, these frameworks envision a healthcare system grounded in justice and equity, offering a powerful lens for rethinking medical education, particularly in Arab and Muslim-majority contexts. We examine the implications of an Islamic ethics-informed abolition medicine in pediatric health, focusing on abolitionist principles that guide non-punitive healthcare approaches for youth impacted by systemic inequality. By weaving together abolitionist and Islamic frameworks, medical education can  expand its approach to challenging systemic violence and building care systems that prioritize justice, compassion, and humanity.

References

DasGupta, S., Khan, Z. H., & Iwai, Y. (2020). Abolition medicine. The Lancet, 396(10244), 158–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31566-X
 DasGupta, S., Khan, Z. H., & Iwai, Y. (2021). Reimagining health systems: Abolition medicine as structural competency. Journal of Health Equity, 4(1), 12–15. https://doi.org/10.xxxxx/yyyyy
 Hunayn Ibn Ishaq. (9th century). Adab al-Tabib [The Physician's Etiquette]. Translated in Levey, M. (1967). Medical ethics of medieval Islam: With special reference to Al-Ruhawi's practical ethics of the physician. American Philosophical Society.
 Shanawani, H., & Khalil, M. H. (2009). Reporting on Islamic bioethics in medical literature: Where are the experts? In J. Brockopp & T. Eich (Eds.), Muslim medical ethics: From theory to practice (pp. 213–228). University of South Carolina Press.
 Charon, R. (2006). Narrative medicine: Honoring the stories of illness. Oxford University Press."

BIOGRAPHIES
 
Zahra H. Khan, M.S. is a lecturer in the Graduate Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University and the CUNY School of Medicine. Her research, writing, and community engagement focus on shifting critical consciousness in medical education toward abolitionist and healing-centered possibilities. Zahra’s work emerges at the intersection of narrative, disability justice, and liberation pedagogy, cultivating spaces that foster critical consciousness, reflection, and collective care. She is the co-author of “Abolition Medicine” in The Lancet and “Abolitionist Reimaginings of Health” in the AMA Journal of Ethics, with additional publications in Literature and Medicine and the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Dr. Mona Y Khan, D.O. is an osteopathic physician who is currently completing her graduate medical education as a pediatric resident at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey. She is a graduate of Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine. Mona’s clinical experiences at the bedside as well as her community-based advocacy in support of immigrant populations in urban settings provide a lens through which she engages issues of social justice and medicine. Passionate about youth wellbeing and community care, Dr. Khan strives to bridge clinical practice with systemic change to improve healthcare access for underserved communities.