Please join us for a one-day, online conference Bioethics in Real Life: Lessons We’re Learning from COVID-19. Distinguished speakers will examine core concepts and an array of bioethical considerations arising from the current coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Plenary sessions will examine, both retrospectively and prospectively, developments arising from the ways in which various theoretical and philosophical aspects of bioethics have been challenged, confirmed, or even torn apart by on the ground, real-life experiences amid this pandemic. While this is certainly not the world’s first pandemic, our current situation is unique in the experience of modern medicine, not least because of the interconnectedness of a globalized world. It has tested surge capacity and has raised the prospect of difficult, truly life and death triage decisions.

Speakers will examine issues that surfaced within this pandemic from a variety of perspectives. In what ways do we better understand the goals of medicine as well as the role of physicians and other healthcare providers in a time of pandemic? What are the implications of attempts to locate effective therapies and vaccines during an ongoing crisis? How have our ideas regarding moral distress and injury been impacted? What does the experience of pandemic look like within communities that deal with ongoing issues of marginalization? What theological resources might be brought to bear on questions like these in light of our recent experience?

The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity’s annual conference is the leading venue for Christian bioethical engagement, providing opportunities for equipping and education as well as professional development and academic engagement across a variety of disciplines and professional contexts.

Conference Objectives:

Identify the prospects and challenges for the evolving landscape of bioethical engagement within the context of a global pandemic.

Explore & Discuss the ethical implications in medicine, science, and technology of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with respect to both our individual and shared humanity.

Evaluate contemporary bioethical discourses in light of ethical approaches that include philosophical, religious, and other perspectives from the medical humanities.

Promote interdisciplinary engagement on these pressing bioethical issues.

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