COURSE INFORMATION AND READING SUGGESTIONS
Course outline for the term's lectures.
The Theology Faculty reading list is extremely long. If you want to invest in any books, clearly the best option is On Moral Medicine edited by Lammers and Verhey. Gilbert Meilaender's Bioethics: a primer for Christians is very short and readable (it takes just a few hours to read) and is astonishingly comprehensive and illuminating for such a short book.
Other notable texts include Begotten or Made? by Oliver O'Donovan (ostensibly on artifical reproduction but with a wealth of wider insights) and Bonhoeffer's essay on "Natural Life" in his Ethics (which specifically handles abortion and 'self-murder' but again his theological conception and method is of particular interest as well as the particular conclusions he arrives at). It's probably pretty essential too to have read something by folk like Paul Ramsey and Stanley Hauerwas. It is also worth mentioning Matters of Life and Death by Professor John Wyatt, who writes as a neonatal paediatrician and Christian.
Andrew Goddard's website includes links to some of the texts on the reading list. Contemporary ones here and historical ones here.
You can get the text of papal encylicals online for free. The most relevant is Evangelium Vitae but it draws on concepts and principles outlined in Veritatis Splendor.
This is clearly not intended to be exhaustive as you will be picking up more in tutorials. We are happy to provide more suggestions but hope these pointers help in focussing your initial reading.
INTERESTING LINKS
NB obviously the quality and content of these sites varies hugely, but they should at least give you some general orientation. If you're going to spend time surfing the net it might as well be vaguely related to your degree.
The Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy (and it's Director, Nigel Cameron's blog)
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has produced some major public policy reports.
The Christian Medical Fellowship has various free publications in its ethics section.
Care Not Killing is an alliance organisation bringing together various bodies who oppose legalisation of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide including groups representing disabled people, the hospice movement, and different faith communities.
The Linacre Centre is a Roman Catholic medical ethics organisation with a wide range of online resources.
If anyone else comes across good sites either let me know or post them in the comments!
