CBHD invites healthcare and other professionals, scholars, researchers, educators, and students to submit abstracts of papers that address questions associated with our conference theme—Polytechnic Bioethics—or that engage more broadly with other foundational and emerging bioethical issues raised at the intersections of medicine, science, technology, and our common humanity. For more information, see the Submission Guidelines below.
The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity
33rd Annual Summer Conference
June 25–27, 2026
LeTourneau University, Longview, TX, USA
Proposal Deadline: April 1, 2026
Looking to enter the student paper competition? Visit the Student Paper Competition Page.
Requirements
All serious proposals relevant to the study of Christian bioethics are welcome, particularly those in the following subject areas:
- General Bioethics
- Biotechnology
- Clinical Ethics
- Disability
- Emerging Issues in Bioethics
- Empirical Research
- Global Bioethics and/or Public Health
- Medical Humanities
- Nursing Ethics
- Philosophical and/or Theological Engagement
- Public Policy and/or Biolaw
- Research Ethics
- Technology Assessment
- Women's Health
All proposals are evaluated through a blind review process. Identifying information must not be included in the abstract.
Deadline
All abstracts must be submitted online prior to April 1, 2026. Acceptances will be announced by the end of April.
Instructions for Submissions
Instructions for Paper Presentations
Oral presentations of contributed papers will be 30 minutes plus 15 minutes for discussion.
CBHD’s new location at LeTourneau University, known as The Christian Polytechnic University, prompts us to reflect on the term “polytechnic” and how bioethics is a polytechnic field. At its root, polytechnic simply means “many arts,” and more specifically, combining the liberal arts with the technical, or “practical,” arts. Bioethics has always been multidisciplinary, drawing from Medicine, Theology, Philosophy, Law, and many other fields. Ethics is applied philosophy, and bioethics specifically combines the technical with the philosophical. It goes beyond asking an abstract question, like “What does it mean to be a human living in community?” to “What will we do with this patient right here before us?” Bioethics, it seems, is very much a polytechnic field.
And just as CBHD has championed a distinctly Christian view of bioethics for the last thirty years, LeTourneau University takes a distinctly Christian view of the polytechnic.
Our 2026 Summer Conference, then, will focus on the polytechnic nature of bioethics, including the various fields from which the discipline draws; the many issues raised that are immensely practical, technical, and temporal; and the deeply human and timeless questions that bioethics raises, like what we will or will not pursue when it comes to matters of life and death.
In addition to our annual Zimmerman Virtue Ethics Lecture, we are inviting talks on bioethics and public policy, ethics and advanced practice professionals, xenotransplantation and the future of organ donation, genetic screening and reproductive technologies, and many others.
In addition, workshops and paper sessions will explore a wide spectrum of issues from traditional and emerging bioethical topics.
The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity’s annual conference is the leading forum for engaging in Christian bioethics, providing opportunities for equipping and educating students, professionals, clergy, and lay people, as well as professional development credit, academic engagement, and networking for academic researchers, policymakers, educators, clinicians, thought leaders, and students across a variety of disciplines and professional contexts.
This conference will be available in person, online, or on-demand. There is no wrong way to attend!