Oral Presentation Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law Conference

Applying zoroastrian virtue ethics in clinical medicine to address epistemic injustice and ethical marginalisation (1847)

Sepanta Sadafi 1 , Ehsan Shamsi Gooshki 2 3 4
  1. Medical Student, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  2. Vice-Chair UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (IBC), UNESCO, Paris, France
  3. Lecturer, Monash Bioethics Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  4. Vice-chair of the WHO Ethics Review Committee (ERC), WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION, Geneva, Canton, Switzerland

Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest ethical traditions, centres its moral philosophy on the triad of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. This triad is grounded in asha—a principle encompassing truth, order, and rightness. This paper argues that Zoroastrian virtue ethics offers a spiritually resonant, culturally grounded framework for moral conduct in clinical medicine, particularly as an alternative to procedural, rule-based models of bioethics. Drawing from primary sources including the Gathas and Khordeh Avesta, this perspective outlines how the cultivation of vohu manah (“good mind”) enables inward moral clarity that can guide clinicians toward compassionate, truthful, and ethically integrated action. This triadic framework is applied to contemporary clinical encounters, including situations of communication breakdown, moral distress, and power imbalance, to explore how Zoroastrian ethics can promote therapeutic presence and professional integrity. For instance, in ethically fraught end-of-life conversations, the principle of asha can orient clinicians toward truth-telling that is both culturally sensitive and morally grounded. Importantly, this approach is positioned as a corrective to epistemic injustices that arise when dominant bioethical frameworks marginalise alternative worldviews. By integrating Zoroastrian ethics into medical education and professional standards, we open space for a broader, more inclusive conversation about what constitutes moral excellence in healthcare practice. This paper advocates for the diversification of clinical ethics through engagement with non-Western virtue traditions, demonstrating their relevance to both intercultural care and the evolution of health professional identity.