Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Luther's Existential Imago Dei, The Deprivation Thesis, And Sanctity Of Life, Tyler M. John

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

On Ryan Peterson’s reading of Martin Luther, the imago Dei (iD) is a human’s capacity to experience God. Traditionally, Christians have understood the iD to be a property that a) qualitatively separates all human beings from all non-human animals and b) gives humans a greater moral worth than non-human animals. If Peterson’s Luther is right, humans made in the iD and no other material created things have the capacity to experience God, and this capacity makes them worth more, morally, than non-human animals.

I defend this conception of the distinctness of humans by demonstrating the following: For any human being …

Brain Death In Medical Ethics, Katherine R. Guffey

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

Researchers are continually discovering new medicinal therapies. Technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate, and modern medicine has turned into an expansive multi-trillion dollar enterprise. New tools such as ventilators and feeding tubes give doctors the ability to extend a person’s life beyond its natural limits. Conditions which used to kill 100% of victims no longer cause as many deaths per year. While these medical technologies bring about the benefit of longer human lives, they have created a new realm of ethical dilemmas. As the old adage goes, “With great power comes great responsibility.” If we have so much power, …