Updates & Activities - Spring-Summer 2019

Paige Cunningham, JD, PHD

• Interviewed in January by WORLD news for an article on uterus transplants.In the early Fall, taught bioethics training for ministry residents at College Church, Wheaton, IL.
• Published an article in February introducing CBHD on the BioLogos website that featured resources by CBHD on the ethics of gene editing.
• In March, taught an adult Sunday school class on bioethics at The Orchard EFCA.
• Interviewed in the spring and summer on a number of topics on “Brian and Kathleen” (Moody Radio Cleveland) and Deseret News including topics such as robots providing end-of-life information.
• In April, guest lectured at Trinity Christian College (Palos Heights, IL).

Mario Tafferner, MA

• “The Literary Background of 2 Sam 8:1-14 in Light of the Ancient South Arabian Royal Memorial Inscriptions,“ Paper read at the “Emerging Voices in Samuel Studies Symposium“ on April 25-27, 2019 at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Michael Sleasman, PHD

• Spoke in late April on “Machine Morality” at University of St. Francis (Joliet, IL).
• In June, delivered workshops on emerging technology and MedTech issues in the life of the Church at the 2019 EFCA One conference in Naperville, IL.

Heather Zeiger, MS, MA

• Published articles on teen girls and technology, vaping, and embryo selection in the Winter 2018 and Spring 2019 issues of Salvo.
• Published a review of Love Thy Body by Nancy Pearcey called “Broken Hearts, Broken Bodies” in Christian Research Journal 41, no. 2 (2018).
• Published the essay “Our Uneasy Tranquility” in The New Atlantis no. 58 (Spring 2019): 15-27.

Staff Transitions

John F. Kilner, PhD‍

Professor of Bioethics and Contemporary Culture and Franklin and Dorothy Forman Chair of Christian Ethics and Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Director of Bioethics Degree Programs at Trinity Graduate School announced his retirement after 25 years in the classroom at TIU effective July 1, 2019. Dr. Kilner served as the first president and CEO of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity from its founding in 1994 until 2005.

Michael J. Sleasman, PhD‍

CBHD Managing Director and Research Scholar was appointed as Associate Professor of Bioethics and the new director of Bioethics Degree Programs for Trinity Graduate School. The longest serving staff member in the Center’s history, Dr. Sleasman first joined the Center in 2007 and shepherded the expansion of CBHD’s scholarship and online resources (including the Christian BioWiki and EverydayBioethics.org) as well as helped to launch many of the Center’s initiatives over the past decade including the Academy of Fellows and International Bioethics Scholar Program, the Theological Bioethics Roundtables, Intersections, and the Center’s Research Library among numerous other activities. While his days working on the Center’s staff will be coming to an end beginning July 1, 2019, Dr. Sleasman’s faculty office will remain in the same academic building as The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity in order to foster increased opportunities for collaboration between Trinity Graduate School’s bioethics degree programs and CBHD.

Theological Bioethics Roundtable

During the Spring 2019 semester, CBHD continued our tradition of hosting theological bioethics roundtable book discussions. Now in its eighth year, these sessions provide an opportunity for CBHD research staff to interact with graduate and doctoral students at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School so as to foster theological reflection and engagement in bioethics. The text for this Spring’s Roundtable was Kelly Kapic, Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering (IVP Academic, 2017) and the discussion was facilitated by Robert D. Orr Fellow and CBHD Research Analyst Mario Tafferner, PhD (Cand).