In this course, students will draw on these resources of faith and search for moral clarity and pastoral wisdom concerning such pressing issues as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, the distribution of scarce medical resources, bio-technical reproduction, organ and tissue donation, and others. Pastors, hospital chaplains, and other ministers are called upon constantly to help Christians and others face issues of life and death in the context of the complexities of modern medicine. Further, many doctors, nurses, and other health-care givers are Christians who desire to engage the practices of medicine and healing as faithful Christian disciples. Ministers who hope to be able to shape congregations to face such issues as Christians, or who hope to be able to minister faithfully to persons in medical crises, or who seek to bear witness to the wider society with a coherent Christian witness in biomedical matters, should find helpful resources in this course. Lectures, discussions, readings.
Class meets twice weekly to discuss readings and issues together.
Lammers, Stephen E. and Allen Verhey, eds. Wheeler, Sodra Ely. Abingdon Press, 1996. Theological Reflections on Medicine, the Mentally Handicapped, and the Church. Kilner, John F., Robert D. Orr.