There’s No Harm in Talking: Re-Establishing the Relationship Between Theological and Secular Bioethics

Abstract

Theological and secular voices in bioethics have drifted into separate silos. Such a separation results in part from (1) theologians focusing less on conveying ideas in ways that contribute to a pluralistic and public bioethical discourse and (2) the dwindling receptivity of religious arguments within secular bioethics. This essay works against these drifts by putting forward an argument that does not bounce around a religious echo-chamber, but instead demonstrates how insights of Christian anthropology can be meaningfully responsive to secular bioethics’ rightful concerns with inequality and injustice. We offer core concepts from Christian bioethics that encourage dialogue with secular and theological bioethicists. The theologically-grounded concepts, human dignity, sin, and the common good, provide intellectual resources to address major areas of bioethical concern that remain unresolved.

Keywords:

• Anthropology
• clinical ethics
• religion
• research ethics
• public health
• theological bioethics

This article is referred to by:

Response to Open Peer Commentaries for “There’s No Harm in Talking: Reestablishing the Relationship Between Theological and Secular Bioethics”

What’s Missing in Secular Bioethics? The False Dichotomy between “the Secular” and “the Theological”

Methodological Clarity in Religious Perspectives of Bioethical Issues: Lessons from Islamic Studies

Community, Complicity, and Critique: Christian Concepts in Secular Bioethics

The Social Context of Religion in the Jurisdictions of Bioethics

Purely Faith-Based vs. Rationally-Informed Theological Bioethics

Correlating Bioethics and Theology

Talking at Cross Purposes: Why We Shouldn’t Re-Establish the Relationship Between Theological and Secular Bioethics

Talking Can Be Harmful Depending on What You Say

“‘There’s No Harm in Talking’…True…But It Depends on How We Talk and What We Then Do”

Public Reason as the Way for Dialogue

A Data-Driven Argument in Bioethics: Why Theologically Grounded Concepts May Not Provide the Necessary Intellectual Resources to Discuss Inequality and Injustice in Healthcare Contexts

Ethical Analysis and Beyond! How Christian Anthropology and the Concept of Dignity Can Also Address Moral Distress in End-of-Life Care

Vulnerable Life: Reflections on the Relationship Between Theological and Philosophical Ethics

The Devil in the Details

Pluralism in the Jewish Ethical Tradition