It is with great sadness that the staff of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity learned of Dr. Allen Verhey’s recent passing in late February. Dr. Verhey was the Robert Earl Cushman Professor of Christian Theology at Duke Divinity School. His book Reading the Bible in the Strange World of Medicine, as well as edited volumes such as On Moral Medicine and Religion & Medical Ethics have served as key texts in the formation and study of Christian bioethics.
Not only was Dr. Verhey a preeminent Christian ethicist of our time, he was also a long-time friend of the CBHD, serving as a member of the Center’s advisory board since its founding. He was one of the original participants in the 1993 bioethics consultation at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School that led to the creation of the Center, and delivered several plenary addresses at the Center’s early conferences including the inaugural conference in 1994. Last year CBHD used Dr. Verhey’s seminal volume, The Christian Art of Dying, as a primary discussion text for our theological bioethics roundtables. Finally, we were blessed that Dr. Verhey was able to join us for our annual conference last summer, offering words of reflection at our 20th anniversary event and delivering a plenary address that fittingly ended with a standing ovation.
In appreciation for the years of Dr. Verhey’s friendship with the Center, and in remembrance of his work, we offer excerpts from his final plenary address with the Center, “Human Flourishing: In Sickness and in Health."