Epistemic Justice in Doctor-Patient Relationships

Epistemic justice—the right to have one's knowledge respected—lies at the heart of Sor Juana's project and healthcare equity. When doctors dismiss a patient's description of their symptoms, refuse to listen to their bodily knowledge, or treat them as incapable of understanding their condition, epistemic injustice occurs. This disproportionately harms women, people of color, disabled people, and other marginalized groups. Sor Juana's insistence on intellectual equality demands that medicine become genuinely dialogical: doctors and patients as knowledge partners. Patients possess irreplaceable expertise about their own bodies, lived experience, and needs. Healthcare justice requires systems where patient testimony is trusted, where lived experience counts as evidence, and where power imbalances don't silence those seeking care. This rebalancing honors both scientific knowledge and human wisdom, creating conditions where healing can actually occur.