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Public Policy

Overview

Public policy includes the action (or in some cases the inaction) of local, state, and national government as it relates to bioethical issues. Examples include regulations placed on medical facilities or medical professionals, conscience issues for healthcare professionals, restrictions placed on certain medical treatments or procedures, the legality of certain types of research (e.g., cloning, embryonic stem cell research, genetic interventions, animal-human hybrids, etc.), and government health insurance programs. Additional issues covered in this section include theories of public engagement; international governance and regulation; the legal, judicial, and regulatory dimensions of policy setting for medicine, science, and technology development and use; as well as analysis of societal trends regarding public sentiment.

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

  • Edward Grant, “Cruzan at 25, Schiavo at 10: Legal Fictions It Is Time to Outgrow.”
  • Kirtley, Michelle, “A Christian Framework for Engaging in Science Policy.”
  • C. Ben Mitchell, “Scientists, Ethics, and Public Engagement.”
  • Video resources from our Healthcare Ethics Council Webinar on “Ebola Ethics: Bedside and Boardroom Considerations.”
Bibliography
Intersections Posts
Dignitas Articles
Bioengagements

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Position Statement

Better than the Rules? Developing Virtue as a Guide for Making Bioethical Decisions

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

People sometimes remark that churches are not very good at teaching and counseling their members concerning difficult bioethical issues. It is worth pondering why many faithful churches seem to fall short in this important area.

Future Resurrection and the Right to Die: Using Strong Theology in Response to Shifting Societal Values

Monday, November 14, 2016

In times of pain, suffering, and loss of control, appeals to compassion and autonomy can make the “right to die” seem reasonable and attractive, and PAD seem forgivable—or even sanctioned. Despite the appeal of PAD, believers can be trusted to discern its wrongness when we make loving and impassioned appeals to historical Christian theology. Every believer can wield a sanctified moral reasoning that cuts carefully and humbly through the noise and appeal of popular notions of love, compassion, and autonomy.

A Biblical View on the Sanctity of Life, Part 2

Friday, February 24, 2017

In the 23 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), I have watched its most celebrated ideals erode and crumble under a double standard. I had the honor of serving on the National Council on Disability when the ADA became law, and ideally, it was intended to guarantee the basic rights of Americans with disabilities. Many saw the ADA as a law which would help move society beyond the premise that one is “better off dead than disabled.” I am amazed, however, at how much people’s fears of disability have eroded the most basic of human rights, especially now that so many more people are surviving disabling conditions. And when society’s fundamental fear of disability provides the framework to legislate policy, the outcome can only result in a double standard.

A Grand Illusion: Oregon's Attempt to Control Death Through Physician-Assisted Suicide

Dignity Vol. 8, No. 3 (Fall 2002)

A Review of the Book The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy

Dignity Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter 2002)

An Honest Approach to Healthcare Financing

Dignitas Vol. 11, No. 3 (Fall 2005)

The Body and the Quest for Control: Appreciating the Complex Nature of Human Embodiment

Dignitas Vol. 11, No. 3 (Fall 2005)

Regulation (or Lack Thereof) of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in the U.S. and Abroad

Dignitas Vol. 17, No. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2010)

A Christian Framework for Engaging in Science Policy

Dignitas Vol. 18, No. 4 (Winter 2011)

To Mandate or Not to Mandate: Politics and HPV Vaccination

Dignitas Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring 2012)

Reviewing the Health & Human Services Mandate on Contraception

Dignitas Vol. 20, No. 2 (Summer 2013)

Advance Medical Directives in the Era of Health Care Reform: Who Decides?

Dignitas Vol. 20, No. 4 (Winter 2013)

Organ Donation and Transplantation: Can Law Resolve the Dilemma of Scarcity?

Dignitas Vol. 22, No. 2 (Summer 2015)
Movie

Delivery Man

Book

The Bradbury Report

Book

The Immortality Factor