Chronic illness and disability can be transformative experiences within the human lifespan. Yet, these experiences can also reveal taken-for-granted norms concerning what it means to be human: What does it mean to have a “normal” or “healthy” body? What do we need to flourish? What is most essential about us? Who are we in relation to others? Such questions contain ontological (what is the nature of being?) and ethical (what should we do?) dimensions. In their own ways, both medicine and theology provide answers to these questions through systems of belief and practice.

In this presentation, Dr. Devan Stahl will explore how medicine and theology have shaped contemporary interpretations of disability and chronic illness and how the field of theological bioethics brings these conversations together. Drawing on her experience as a clinical ethicist and theologian, Devan will explore how disability is understood and addressed within healthcare organizations and congregations, and how these institutions shape our beliefs about what it means to be human.

Speaker

Dr. Devan Stahl is an Associate Professor of Bioethics and Religion at Baylor University and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Education, Innovation, and Technology at the Baylor College of Medicine. She received her PhD in Health Care Ethics from St. Louis University and her MDiv from Vanderbilt University. She specializes in theological bioethics, disability ethics, and the visual arts within medicine. Devan also volunteers as a clinical ethicist consultant for the Supportive and Palliative Care Team at Baylor, Scott, and White Hillcrest and has trained as a hospital chaplain. Devan is the cohost of the popular podcast Bioethics for the People, now in its sixth season. She is the author and editor of several books, including Imaging and Imagining Illness: Becoming Whole in a Broken Body (Cascade Books), Disability’s Challenge to Theology: Genes, Eugenics, and the Metaphysics of Modern Medicine (Notre Dame Press), and Bioenhancement Technology and the Vulnerable Body: A Theological Engagement.

Respondent

Dr. Quentin Genuis is an emergency physician and ethicist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. He serves as the physician ethicist for Providence Health Care, and is a Sessional Faculty and the Professional in Residence at Regent College in Vancouver, where he teaches on topics including medical ethics and addiction.

Parking: Regent College no longer has its own parking lot. Paid parking options are available nearby with metered parking on Western Parkway, among other locations, and covered pay parking at the Thunderbird Parkade. See the UBC Parking website for more info.

Location: Regent College Chapel (5800 University Blvd)