Publications

WORKS

Passive Patient Culture in India: Disrespect in Law and Medicine, Routledge

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This book critiques the archetype of the “passive patient” entrenched in both medicine and law in India – an image that undermines agency, diminishes self-respect, and sustains a culture of disrespect. Chapters of the book unpacks the intersections of power, social categories, and patienthood, exposing how marginalized communities face everyday indignities in healthcare and law. It explores law and medicine's role in maintaining presumed “passive patient” archetype, especially through legal judgements and healthcare encounters. This book advocates for reimagining patienthood as centered on self-respect, recognition, and agency, arguing that the “passive patient” is not an isolated phenomenon but an outcome of broader, oppressive structures.June 6th, Book Launch Event in Bangalore, India! Here is the recording: https://youtu.be/_MiufOrAKrU?si=J0uQmKry-2H8T3bSAugust, 21st, Book Launch Event in Sydney, Australia. Here is the recording: https://youtu.be/6al-_bqRCVs?feature=shared

Endorsements:

In India, poor people and marginalised communities are often treated in an abominable way. They are ignored, slighted, blamed, cheated, humiliated – the list is not difficult to extend. This is also true to a varying extent around the world, but India is quite extreme when it comes to what Supriya Subramani aptly calls “everyday indignities”. One reason for this is the pervasive influence of the caste system, a uniquely oppressive structure of graded inequality. There is a misconception among the privileged that the victims are used to being treated that way and take it in their stride. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people aspire to some dignity, and every act of disrespect adds to the deep well of anger among marginalised groups. Everyday indignities abound in all spheres of Indian life, but they are especially pernicious in the field of healthcare. As eminent economist Kenneth Arrow explained long ago, the relation between doctor (or nurse) and patient is based on trust. Disrespect on the part of the doctor or nurse can easily destroy this trust. As Subramani writes, it can even happen that “a Dalit man refuses treatment because of the humiliation he anticipates at a government clinic” – I have heard of specific examples of this myself. And this breach of trust is just one aspect of the debilitating effects of disrespect in a healthcare system based on the “passive patient” culture. Supriya Subramani’s book is a pioneering attempt to explore this dark side of Indian healthcare. The study is enriched by her own experience of everyday indignities from childhood onwards. The book will be of much interest to privileged and underprivileged readers alike. For those who have also been at the receiving end of everyday indignities, it will be a source of strength and inspiration. If you come from the other end, this book will help you to open your eyes to patterns of disrespect that are too often taken for granted.

— Jean Drèze, Development Economist and Social Thinker (Author of 'Sense and Solidarity: Jholawala economics for everyone', and An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions with Amartya Sen)

Dr Subramani’s Passive Patient Culture in India is one of the finest works of philosophy that I have read in a long, long time. It is exemplary in the manner in which philosophical analysis and reflection are exercised in service of the marginalised, rather than the sadly more common tendency whereby the marginalised are commodified for the benefit of academic enterprise. Subramani has much to teach social and political philosophers, bioethicists, the legal community, health humanities scholars, those working in development, and health practitioners of all stripes. While the book title begins to locate the communities with whom Subramani laboured in the production of this text, Passive Patient Culture in India has important lessons for us all - geography, class, gender and caste notwithstanding.

— Bryan Mukandi, Philosopher

The title of this book is deceiving. It should in fact be called something like “Respect and Recognition: A New and Urgent Manifesto for an Ailing World.” Because it is a must-read for anyone interested in challenging themselves, their disciplinary norms, and their institutional cultures – to think deeply about the structural inequalities that shape our worlds and work towards overcoming them in any area in which we practice. It should be required reading for all. Subramani’s work has already changed the way I think about the research that I do in history, and the way in which I do it. The introduction alone was breathtaking in its intellectual reach, its connective sinews, and its critical, yet hopeful arguments. This book left me in tears, and yet deeply inspired – to dare to dream about how to do things differently, and to get on with trying.

— Michael A. McDonnell, Historian

Upcoming Book

Subramani, Supriya. Practising Reflexivity. Under contract with Routledge.

Peer Reviewed Published Papers

Subramani, Supriya. (2025). Cultivating Trust: Ethical Imperatives to Dismantle Institutional Racism in Healthcare. Medical Jouranl of Australia.https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52675

Subramani, Supriya. (2025). Practising reflexivity: Ethico-epistemological, political project? Methodological Innovations. https://doi.org/10.1177/20597991251316584

Subramani, Supriya. (2024). Othering and Ethics of Belonging in Migrants' Healthcare Experiences. Sociology of Health and Illness. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13829

Subramani, Supriya, Vinay, Rasita, Hefti, Michaela, Marz, Julian, Biller-Andorno, Nikola. (2023). Ethical issues in breastfeeding and lactation interventions: a scoping review. Journal of Human Lactation. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F08903344231215073

Subramani, Supriya. (2023). Beyond Public Health and Private Choice: Breastfeeding, Embodiment and Public Health Ethics, Asian Bioethics Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41649-023-00259-0.

Subramani Supriya. (2023). Emotions and affects: the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle of understanding risk attitudes in medical decision-making. Journal of Medical Ethics Published Online First: 16 August 2023. doi: 10.1136/jme-2023-109374. Submitted version here.

Loughlin, M, Dolezal, L, Hutchinson, P, Subramani, S, Milani, R, Lafarge, C. (2022) Philosophy and the clinic: stigma, respect and shame. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.; 1- 6. doi:10.1111/jep.13755

Ashu, J.T., Mwangi, J., Subramani, S., Kaseje D., Ashuntantang G., Luyckx V. (2022). Challenges to the right to health in sub-Saharan Africa: reflections on inequities in access to dialysis for patients with end-stage kidney failure. International Journal for Equity in Health 21, 126. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01715-3

Subramani, S., Biller-Andorno, N. Revisiting respect for persons: conceptual analysis and implications for clinical practice. Medicine Health Care and Philosophy. 25, 351–360 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-022-10079-y

Onarheim K, Ingleby D, Subramani S, Miljeteig I. (2021) Adopting an ethical approach to migration health policy, practice and research. BMJ Global Health;6:e006425. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006425

Paramasivan S, Davies P, Richards A, Wade J, Rooshenas L, Mills N, Realpe A, Raj J, Subramani S, Ives J, Huxtable R, Blazeby J and Donovan J. (2021). What empirical research has been undertaken on the ethics of clinical research in India? A systematic scoping review and narrative synthesis to map the evidence. BMJ Global Health. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004729

Subramani, Supriya. (2020). Moral Habitus: An approach to understanding embedded disrespectful practices, Developing World Bioethics. 1– 11. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12301

Subramani, Supriya. (2020). The Social Construction of Incompetency: Moving Beyond Embedded Paternalism Toward the Practice of Respect. Health Care Analysis. 28, 249–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-020-00395-w

Subramani, Supriya. (2019). The rhetoric of 'passive patient' in the Indian medical negligence cases. Asian Bioethics Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41649-019-00106-1

Subramani, Supriya. (2019). The uninformed spouse: Balancing confidentiality and other professional obligations. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, [S.l.], v. 4, n. 3 (NS), p. 211-215. https://ijme.in/articles/the-uninformed-spouse-balancing-confidentiality-and-other-professional-obligations/?galley=html

Subramani, Supriya. (2019). Practising reflexivity: Ethics, methodology and theory construction. Methodological Innovations. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059799119863276 | PDF

Subramani, Supriya. (2018). The moral significance of capturing micro-inequities in hospital settings. Social Science & Medicine, 209, 136-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.05.036

Subramani, Supriya. (2017). Patient autonomy within real or valid consent: Samira Kohli’s case. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 2(3), 184-9. https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2017.038 | PDF

News/Opinion

When hospitals become hostile: The importance of cultivating trust and dignity within our healthcare systems. ABC Religion and Ethics

Interviewed in 'Health workers condemn video showing NSW Health nurses bragging about killing Israeli patients'. ABC News.

Blog

Blog, Feb 1st 2022| Poverty-induced stigma, shame and humiliation in healthcare settings

Blog, April 14th 2020| Salience of effective public communication and transparency during COVID-19

Subramani, S. 2014. | Am I ‘The Man’ On The Court. TARSHI (Talking About Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues). http://www.tarshi.net/inplainspeak/i-column-am-i-the-man-on-the-court/

Podcast

Guest on 'How hate speech in healthcare tears at something sacred in our common life' on ABC Radio National The Minefield.

I was featured on ABC Radio National and Philosopher's Zone podcast titled 'Health care ethics: otherness and belonging'

Concept: Art, Episode 1 with Pat McConville. March 23 2024

‘On Situated knowledge, standpoint theory and interdisciplinary exploration’ on Undisciplinary with Christopher Meyes and Jane Williams.

Sydney Health Ethics Podcast on “Revisiting Respect for Persons: Conceptual Analysis and Implications for Clinical Practice”, Sept 7 2023

Podcast host and producer: Being Diagnosed with COVID-19: Reflecting on the experience with Dr. Usha Sriram. Oct 23 2020. https://fmesinstitute.org/blog-18-heal-institute-ijme-covid-19-insights-podcast-october- 2020/#.X7UQ8C2ZNQI

Podcast host and producer: Ethics in Practice with Dr. Usha Sriram. Oct 22, 2020. https://fmesinstitute.org/blog-17-heal-institute-ijme-covid-19-insights-podcast-october-2020/#.X7UQny2ZNQI

Podcast host and producer: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Covid-19 with Valerie Luyckx, Aug 29 2020. https://fmesinstitute.org/non-communicable-diseases-ncds-and-covid-19/