DESCRIPTION:

In our age of technology, the most fundamental issues concerning the beginning of life (e.g. prenatal screening, abortion, reproductive technologies, embryonic stem cell research) and death (e.g. active and passive euthanasia, organ and tissue donation, quality vs. quantity of life) have become dizzyingly complicated. This course offers an opportunity to investigate both secular and religious approaches, with an emphasis on how Christians uniquely understand these issues in light of our faith.

This course focuses not only on cognitive ethical arguments surrounding these issues but also on the responsibility of Christians to be a compassionate presence in a culturally, religiously, and morally pluralistic world. At the very least, all of us face our own death. This course should therefore be relevant to missionaries, lay people, therapists, and ministers--all who wish to offer Christian hope and healing amidst the joys and sadnesses that arise at the beginning and end of life.

The course will consist of lectures (with an emphasis on case studies), occasional movies and documentaries, student presentations, and overall rely heavily on discussion of readings. Guest speakers will share from their experience as ministers and hospital chaplains. Students will be encouraged--though not required--to develop short devotions for the class. The course will meet weekly for a three-hour session for ten weeks.

Bregman, Lucy. Beyond Silence and Denial: Death and Dying Reconsidered. Westminster John Knox, 1999.

Kilner, John F., Paige C. Cunningham, and W. David Hager, eds. The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality, Reproductive Technologies, and the Family. Eerdmans, 2000.

O'Rourke, K. D. and Philip Boyle. Medical Ethics: Sources of Catholic Teaching. Georgetown University Press, 1999.

Verhey, Allen. Reading the Bible in the Strange World of Medicine. Eerdmans, 2003.

Course Reader.

Anderson, Ray. Theology of Death and Dying. Fuller Seminary Press, 1986.

Buchannan, Allen, Dan W. Brock, Norman Daniels, and Daniel Wikler. From Change to Choice: Genetics and Justice. Cambridge, 2000.

Nuland, Sherwin. How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter. Vintage Press, 1993.

Smith, David H. and Cythia B. Cohen, eds. A Christian Response to the New Genetics: Religious, Ethical and Social Issues. Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

This course depends heavily on students doing the reading and discussing it with one another. In addition, the following three assignments are required:

1. A 3-5 page critical analysis of a bioethical issue, to be distributed to the class (25%);

2. A weekly journal entry, reflecting on the readings and our discussion of these issues (25%);

3. A 10-15 page research paper (50%).