The following podcast was originally recorded at The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity 25th annual conference, Bioethics & Being Human.

Abstract: Our responses to bioethical issues from conception to death and everything in between, revolve around how we understand humanness. Issues arise in part because new technologies push us to deal with the definition and boundaries of humanness. But they also arise because of new competing anthropologies and competing frameworks for determining our anthropologies. Of particular significance in contemporary debates is the perspective that there is no human essence. At the heart of a Christian response is an affirmation that there is such a thing as human nature (i.e., essence) and the dimensions of our humanness set boundaries on what we ought and ought not do with human beings in our bioethical dilemmas. While such affirmations and boundaries arise from “thick” Christian worldview assumptions, we can speak to the culture through a broader language in our attempts to be salt and light in a complex, secular world.