Social Justice Is Not a Power-Driven Charity: The Problem With “Equity-Deserving” Terminology in Health Equity Literature

This commentary critiques the growing use of the term “equity-deserving” in health equity literature, academic institutions, and policy research. The term was originally intended to frame equity as a right rather than a request. However, we argue that “equity-deserving” is a conceptually flawed term that reinforces a charity-based model of social justice by positioning institutions as benevolent givers and marginalized groups as passive receivers. This, in turn, results in obscuring the structural causes of inequality, risking the creation of meritocratic gatekeeping in clinical care and jeopardizing the validity of health equity research through the use of monolithic, performative labels.