The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity

In the BIOETHICS WEEKLY: + The Challenge of Pastoral Leadership Today: What Is Our Technological Age Doing to Us? + Read with CBHD + Conference Proposals Due April 1 preview.mailerlite.io/preview/217454… + A Billionaire-Backed Startup Wants to Grow ‘Organ Sacks’ to Replace Animal Testing + Two States Sue Cord Blood Bank Over False Advertisements + Scottish parliament votes against legalising assisted dying +++ MORE +++

The BIOETHICS READING GROUP launches April 1! First meeting April 16—Sign up now at zeffy.com/en-US/ticketin… + April-May: David VanDrunen, Bioethics and the Christian Life + July-August: Ewan Goligher, How Should We Then Die? + October-November: Paul Ramsey, Fabricated Man + January-February: TBA Join us for any one of the books OR for all four. Meetings will take place on Zoom every two weeks (first meeting April 16) and will be recorded for those unable to join in real time. In between, we will have ongoing conversations via an online discussion platform. CBHD’s associate Jon Holmlund, MD, MA (Bioethics), will lead the discussions in conjunction with CBHD leadership. There is a small charge to participate: $50/book or $150 for all four, and you will need to purchase a copy of each book. Please join us!

Proposal Deadline: April 1, 2026 cbhd.org/conference/cfp CBHD invites healthcare and other professionals, scholars, researchers, educators, and students to submit abstracts of papers that address questions associated with our conference theme—Polytechnic Bioethics—or that engage more broadly with other foundational and emerging bioethical issues raised at the intersections of medicine, science, technology, and our common humanity. For more information, see the Submission Guidelines at cbhd.org/conference/cfp

NEW INTERSECTIONS: "The Challenge of Pastoral Leadership Today: What Is Our Technological Age Doing to Us?" by Kelly D. Liebengood, PhD, Dean of the School of Theology and Vocation, LeTourneau University cbhd.org/intersections/… If we are going to properly discern and embrace what God wants for us, that is, if we are going to be faithful to our vocation—if we are going to be the humans that God has made us to be—then we must also pay attention to the ways in which our age is actively shaping our habits and assumptions about the good life and what it means to be human. cbhd.org/intersections/… Dr. Kelly Liebengood is Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at LeTourneau University, where he also serves as Dean of the School of Theology and Vocation. He is passionate about research and writing on such issues as community formation, the intersection between vocation and biblical/theological studies, and Christian faithfulness in a technological world. His upcoming book, _Understanding Christian Vocation in a Technological Age_ (Pickwick), will further delve into issues related to formation and technology. Dr. Liebengood was also the founding pastor of One Hope Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas, where he continues to serve as elder.

CBHD Fellow @AdamOmelianchuk presenting an outstanding paper at the 2026 Conference on Medicine and Religion

Call for Proposals -- Deadline April 1 CBHD invites healthcare and other professionals, scholars, researchers, educators, and students to submit abstracts of papers that address questions associated with our conference theme—Polytechnic Bioethics—or that engage more broadly with other foundational and emerging bioethical issues raised at the intersections of medicine, science, technology, and our common humanity. For more information, see the Submission Guidelines at cbhd.org/conference/cfp

NOW AVAILABLE: Dignitas vol. 32, no. 3-4 (Fall/Winter 2025) THE ETHICS OF BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE DEVICES cbhd.org/dignitas-issue… + Neuroengineering Hope and Harm: Ethical Dilemmas of Brain-Machine Interfaces + Homo Prostheticus: Theological and Ethical Implications of Brain-Computer Interface Technology + Brain-Computer Interface Technology’s Impact on Human Personhood, Identity, and Dignity + Living in the Biotech Century: 2025 Conference Recap + Book Review of The Immortal Mind +++ MORE +++

cbhd.org/conference-2026 Register Now for Polytechnic Bioethics! Confirmed speakers: + Gilbert Meilaender, Valparaiso, President's Council on Bioethics + John Seago, Texas Right to Life + Jesse Kay, Baylor College of Medicine + Tara Sander Lee, Science Alliance for Life and Technology cbhd.org/conference-2026

This BIOETHICS WEEKLY: + The Theology and Dignity of Death + Polytechnic Bioethics + Read with CBHD preview.mailerlite.io/preview/217454… + Canada now offering SAME-DAY assisted suicide, with one elderly woman who changed her mind killed anyway + The Boom in Autism Therapy Is Medicaid’s Fastest-Growing Jackpot + Planned Parenthood Wants You to Get Your Botox at Its Clinic +++ MORE +++

READ WITH CBHD zeffy.com/en-US/ticketin… Our new Bioethics Reading Group will begin in April 2026, and we plan to read four bioethics books over the course of twelve months. We will read and discuss a book, two months at a time, with a month off between books. The first book will be Bioethics and the Christian Life by David VanDrunen, and the Reading Group begins on April 1. Every two weeks, we will hold a 75-minute online discussion, and the first discussion is scheduled for Thursday, April 16, at 3:00 pm Eastern / 2:00 pm Central / 1:00 pm Mountain / Noon Pacific. CBHD’s associate Jon Holmlund, MD, MA (Bioethics), will lead the discussions in conjunction with CBHD leadership. Other books we will read: + Ewan Goligher, How Should We Then Die? A Christian Response to Physician-Assisted Death + Paul Ramsey, Fabricated Man: The Ethics of Genetic Control + One Book to Be Determined There will be a small charge to participate: $50 payable to CBHD to participate in the discussion of each book (or $150 to participate in the discussions of all four books), and you will need to purchase a copy of each book. We hope you will join this effort! zeffy.com/en-US/ticketin…

New INTERSECTIONS: "The Theology and Dignity of Death: Karl Rahner’s Lessons for Today" by Edward R. Grant, JD, MA cbhd.org/intersections/… Death poses many paradoxes. Is it a purely natural event, or in some sense unnatural? An end, or also a beginning? What is the state of our soul after our passing? How should we understand what death is? And why is it that we die the death we die?

In the BIOETHICS WEEKLY: + Call for Proposals – 2026 Conference: Polytechnic Bioethics preview.mailerlite.io/preview/217454… + More organs are being donated after the heart stops, not brain death. Policies are changing too + Lab-Grown Brains Growing More Powerful + Gemini Said They Could Only Be Together if He Killed Himself. Soon, He Was Dead. + ChatGPT Health ‘under-triaged’ half of medical emergencies in a new study +++ MORE +++

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: DEADLINE APRIL 1 cbhd.org/conference/cfp CBHD invites healthcare and other professionals, scholars, researchers, educators, and students to submit abstracts of papers that address questions associated with our conference theme—Polytechnic Bioethics—or that engage more broadly with other foundational and emerging bioethical issues raised at the intersections of medicine, science, technology, and our common humanity.

New Month, NEW BIOETHICS MONTHLY: preview.mailerlite.io/preview/217454… + On Shepherding Embodied Souls + New Intersections Series – Shared Convictions: CBHD and LeTourneau on Mission + Five Questions: Virtue Formation in Applied Christian Education + 2026 Conference + 20 Years of The Bioethics Podcast: The One Who Smiles A Lot + News Highlights +++ MORE +++

The first plenary address was from @AdamOmelianchuk titled "The Promises of the Pig: What Should We Expect from Xenotransplantation?" This session was sponsored by The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity @BioethicsCenter (dir. @MatthewEppinett). youtu.be/Vv4k57X2ZfU?si…

Catch Up on The BIOETHICS WEEKLY + Registration Now Open – 2026 Conference: Polytechnic Bioethics + New Intersections Series – Shared Convictions: CBHD and LeTourneau on Mission + Five Questions: Virtue Formation in Applied Christian Education preview.mailerlite.io/preview/217454… + Grail’s Cancer Detection Test Fails in Major Study + Hospitals Fighting Measles Confront a Challenge: Few Doctors Have Seen It Before + The FDA creates a quicker path for gene therapies +++ MORE +++

NEW INTERSECTIONS – Five Questions: Virtue Formation in Applied Christian Education by Steven D. Mason, PhD, President, LeTourneau University cbhd.org/intersections/… It could sound over-simplified or even trite to say from the outset that loving God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves requires the realignment of the two worlds of applied science and theology into a single sphere rotating on its axis around the heat and light of, yes, the Son. Dr. Steven D. Mason has been at LeTourneau University since 2006. After serving as a full-time faculty member in the School of Theology and Vocation, he became Dean of Faculty and later Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. As Provost, he wrote “LeTourneau University as The Christian Polytechnic University: Embracing the Saga of our Unique Organizational Calling,” a seminal essay for understanding the distinct vocation of LeTourneau University. In 2021, the University Board of Trustees unanimously appointed him President. He serves on the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities’ “Mission Self-Study Advisory Board.” In addition to his passion for higher education, he is deeply committed to church life and discipleship, serving as a founding elder at One Hope Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas. “Shared Convictions: CBHD and LeTourneau on Mission” is a new series introducing CBHD's partnership with LeTourneau University. Each piece highlights a different LeTourneau faculty or staff member and will evidence the shared mission to produce theologically rich and biblically grounded explorations of key issues at the intersection of faith, science, and technology.

Announcing our 33rd Annual Conference: POLYTECHNIC BIOETHICS – Join us June 25–27 in Longview, Texas cbhd.org/conference-2026 CBHD’s new location at LeTourneau University, known as The Christian Polytechnic University, prompts us to reflect on the term “polytechnic” and how bioethics is a polytechnic field. At its root, polytechnic simply means “many arts,” and more specifically, combining the liberal arts with the technical, or “practical,” arts. Bioethics has always been multidisciplinary, and it goes beyond asking an abstract question, like “What does it mean to be a human living in community?” to “What will we do with this patient right here before us?” Our 2026 Summer Conference will focus on the polytechnic nature of bioethics, including the various fields from which the discipline draws; the many issues raised that are immensely practical, technical, and temporal; and the deeply human and timeless questions that bioethics raises, like what we will or will not pursue when it comes to matters of life and death. In addition to our annual Zimmerman Virtue Ethics Lecture, we are inviting talks on bioethics and public policy, ethics and advanced practice professionals, xenotransplantation and the future of organ donation, genetic screening and reproductive technologies, and many others. We invite you to join us at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, June 25–27, 2026, for The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity’s 33rd Annual Conference, Polytechnic Bioethics. Location LeTourneau University 2100 S Mobberly Ave Longview, TX 75602 Pricing Non-Member: $349 Member: $299 Student, Pastor, Early Career: $99 Discounts Students attending the conference for the first-time can get $25 off. Register as a student and use code FTSD25. New Members attending the conference for the First Time attend for $149. Choose the "CBHD Member" option and use code FTM149. LeTourneau Alumni register for 25% off with code LETUAlum. Register your spouse for $49 with a fully paid registration. zeffy.com/en-US/ticketin…

Did you receive last week's BIOETHICS WEEKLY? + LeTourneau University Acquires Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity + Survey on CRISPR and Christian Perspectives in Public Policy preview.mailerlite.io/preview/217454… + Killing People Is Not the Same as Allowing Them to Die + The Rise of RentAHuman, the Marketplace Where Bots Put People to Work + Silicon Valley is building a shadow power grid for data centers across the U.S. +++MORE+++