At the Roots of Christian Bioethics : Critical Essays on the Thought of H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr

At the Roots of Christian Bioethics explores Professor H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.'s pursuit for the decisive ground of the meaning of human existence and knowledge of appropriate moral choice. Engelhardt has been the most influential, cogent, but critical voice within bioethics of the past several decades. The essays in this volume compass epistemological, methodological and topical contributions to bioethics, political theory, and Christian theology. Each explores Engelhardt's diagnosis of the contemporary social and cultural crisis, seeking to make sense of the decidedly post-Christian and often openly anti-Christian ethics that dominates public morality and politic policy. Each author investigates Engelhardt's personal and tireless enquiry to secure ultimate moral foundations as well as to recognize the full implications of the results of his investigations: that Christian bioethics does not originate in human reason but in the command of God.

Ana Iltis completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Philosophy at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She joined the faculty of the Department for Health Care Ethics in January 2003. Her specializations include the ethics of human subjects research and organizational ethics. Mark J. Cherry is the Dr. Patricia A. Hayes Professor in Applied Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas. He completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Philosophy at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is author of Kidney for Sale by Owner: Human Organs, Transplantation, and the Market (Georgetown University Press, 2005).