Science, Biological, Medical (genetics, illness/mental illness, death)

[1] When invited to speak at a recent gathering of Lutheran ethicists I was asked to address the question “What are the distinctive contributions of a Lutheran bioethic?”1 Thus, my charge seemed to make two assumptions: the first, that there is a Lutheran bioethic and second, that its contributions to plenary debate are distinctive. Both […]

[1] This social statement begins the public conversation within the ELCA on health and health care. If we take this statement seriously, we will be agents of change. The impact of this statement depends on the action of individual members, congregations, and institutions of the church toward improving health within their spheres of influence. This […]

[1] The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s social statement on economic life, “Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All,” cites Martin Luther’s assertion that Christians violate God’s commandment, “you shall not kill,” when people lack the ability to meet their basic needs of life.[1] Since nearly one-sixth of the world’s population lacks access to the food necessary […]

[1] The 2004 Gathering of Lutheran Ethicists on January 7-8 in Chicago focused on the topic “Lutheran Contributions to Bioethics.” Discussion papers from that gathering are posted elsewhere in this issue of JLE. This report aims to pull together threads from the conversation at the gathering around this topic so that not only the papers […]

[1] 1. Biotechnology develops in cultural contexts, and not in isolation in the laboratory. At first glance, the driving forces behind biotechnology are the hard sciences: biological and medical research, new technologies and the interest in making a profit in an expanding sector of the economy: health care. But these developments have consequences that go […]

With this April issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, we bring the third installment in our series of notes on books addressing genetic engineering. For interested readers, the previous two columns appeared in the September and December, 2003 issues. Works reviewed in this month’s column: Gordon Graham, Genes Editors of Scientific American, Understanding Nanotechnology […]

[1] JLE: Tell us a little about yourself and your farming operation: how many acres do you farm, what do you produce, what area of the country are you in, how long has this land been in your family? [2] DG: My name is Dennis Gengenbach and I am 54 years old. I have a […]

[1] This question continues to be debated around the world. Some consumers, especially many European and Japanese, are not accepting food made from GMOs. A growing minority of US consumers is now raising serious questions as well. [2] Before trying to answer the question posed in the title, I should define what is generally meant […]

Case [1] “It’s been quite a year,” thought Tom Moline.” On top of their normal efforts at hunger advocacy and education on campus, the twenty students in the Hunger Concerns group were spending the entire academic year conducting an extensive study of hunger in sub-Saharan Africa. Tom’s girlfriend, Karen Lindstrom, had proposed the idea after […]

With this December issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, we bring the second installment in our series of notes on books addressing genetic engineering. For interested readers, the first of these columns appeared in the September issue. Works reviewed in this month’s column: David B. Resnik et al., Human Germline Gene Therapy Phillip Kitcher, […]