Bioethike

You must check out the blog for the Center for Morality in Public life. Titled Ethika Politika (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?!?), this looks like it going to be a treasure trove for those wishing to applying natural law thinking to contemporary, hot-button issues. CFMPL President Andrew Haines was kind enough to e-mail me last week. [...]

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Absent Autonomy: CTCR Ethical Recommendations Regarding the Beginning of Human Life Robert C. Baker For partial credit toward MHE 604 Section 01 Social and Cultural Contexts of Health Care – Summer I 2010 Word Count: 1,935 Abstract: The Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) aids that church body [...]

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You be the judge. Here’s my contribution as applied to PVS patients, which you can also access by the tab at the top of Bioethike’s page. I believe this is the first paper to consider and critique the concept of the imago Dei as explained by Rev. Dr. Nathan Jastram, who offers “to be like [...]

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In a stunning blow to same-sex marriage advocates, the New York State Senate rejected (38 to 24) efforts to legalize same-sex marriage, despite prior approval by the State Assembly and heavy lifting by Democratic Governor David Paterson. This action is sandwiched between last month’s voter rejection of Maine’s same-sex marriage law and a similar contest [...]

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BioEdge notes that “bioethicist” has become a dirty word for some Americans. Now, apparently, atheist bioethicists are starting to flex a bit more muscle: They recently published an article in the Guardian’s “Comment is free” blog, under the headline, “Stand up, stand up, against Jesus”. They reject accommodationist atheism which cozies up to religious people [...]

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Among hot political contests in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York tomorrow, Maine voters have an opportunity to overturn a law recognizing same-sex marriage in that state. You can read more about it in this AP report. How did New England get to be so liberal? As I mentioned here, you can blame it (partly) [...]

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The New York Times reports today on a myriad of problems associated with in vitro fertilization. Seriously folks, the risks–not to mention the troubling moral issues–of this type of emotional appeasement are far, far too great. Better to accept the Lord’s will and to adopt children who are already here. From the article: While IVF [...]

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Pardon me for being a provocateur, but there’s something missing in the current charges being leveled, albeit charitably, from some “conservative” Lutherans against the recent ELCA decisions to allow for same-sex marriage and the rostering of ELCA clergy in life-long, monogamous, same-sex (oh, good grief–any more modifiers?) relationships. It’s a case of going far, but [...]

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At Lutherans and Procreation, Pastor Keith asks, Dr. Baker, could you please elaborate on the “strong divine command theory ethic”? I was recently accused of perpetrating the heresy of “taking the Bible literally”, an error which was portrayed as being a phenomenon which sprang up in the early 1900s in response to scientific advances. I [...]

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