Bioethics and Religion Unit

The Bioethics and Religion Unit welcomes paper and/or panel proposals that examine how religious and spiritual traditions and practices affect the field of bioethics. We are particularly interested in the following themes, but we also welcome any proposals that address any proposals in bioethics and religions:

In consideration of the AAR Presidential Theme for the 2023 Annual Meeting, “the work of our hands,” the Bioethics and Religion Unit welcomes proposals that interpret the theme as relates to “Spiritual Care for Healthcare Providers, Caregivers, and Patients in the Post-pandemic Era.” Healthcare providers and caregivers have expressed their physical, emotional, psychological, moral, and spiritual exhaustion during the pandemic and the presumptive post-pandemic era. We welcome proposals that address issues of burnout, exhaustion, and revival among healthcare providers and caregivers in healthcare in the context of the pandemic. We are interested in various narratives, analyses, and/or suggestions on spiritual care for them, and how they add to bioethical considerations. We also welcome papers/panels that address the need of spiritual care for healthcare providers and patients in reproductive care after the Dobbs decision as a matter of bioethics.

• Co-sponsored session with Bioethics and Religion and the Social Sciences: "Religion in the Post-Dobbs Era": We invite papers/panels to address post-Dobbs abortion issues as ethical matters, reproductive justice, or other religious perspectives. This broad call can include consequences of the Dobbs decision on different religious and non-religious communities (e.g. patients of color, healthcare providers, religious communities), influences of religious communities on the Dobbs decision, responses to this decision by religious communities, and spiritual care for patients and healthcare providers who have experienced religious or other forms of marginalization from abortion experiences and abortion practices. The committee particularly welcomes papers/panels with social scientific approaches to these topics. 
• Co-sponsored session with Human Enhancement and Transhumanism Unit: "Data Justice, and Healthcare":  We are seeking papers or a proposed panel looking at the intersection of data justice and healthcare in religious communities or perspectives.
• We welcome any proposals that address any aspects of the relationship between bioethics and religion.