READING GROUP
Fall 2025
Having productive conversations across ideological lines about contested topics requires essential virtues.
For example, we must develop intellectual humility to be able to see our blind spots and where we might be wrong. Similarly, we must grow in courage to speak our minds about what we think is true. We must be fair-minded, being open to understanding others’ arguments and reasons in the best possible light. Crucially, we must treat the other with a spirit of intellectual friendship: As one from whom we can learn a lot, even when we think they’re wrong about something fundamental.
This reading group will explore and seek to foster these attitudes through an exploration of contested questions in bioethics. Each week will feature a pair of arguments on opposing sides of a contested issue, to be discussed with an open mind. Conversations will include discussion of issues such as: IVF and assisted reproductive technologies, embryo research, and euthanasia/physician aid in dying.
Led by Dr. Victor Saenz
