About the Author

Courtney S. Campbell is the Hundere Professor of Religion and Culture and Director of the Program in Medical Humanities at Oregon State University. A scholar in medical ethics and religious ethics, Campbell has written reports on religion and bioethics for federal advisory commissions and has served on ethics committees for local, regional, and national hospice programs on physician-assisted death. He is a fellow of The Hastings Center.

Reviews

"Campbell captures what is missing from the modern medical discourse, a gap filled by 'bearing witness' to the human condition inherent in medical encounters. Drawing on concepts, tools, and methods of religious studies, he offers a more complete bioethics with a thicker narrative construct. The new bioethics that emerges, deeply rooted in familiar traditions, will make this book a classroom treasure."
--Felicia Cohn, Bioethics Director, Kaiser Permanente, Orange County

"Bearing Witness is a personally compelling and powerful statement of the importance of religion in bioethics and health care. Campbell rightly rejects the dominant tradition of contemporary bioethics for its religious and spiritual emptiness. In its place, he argues for the centrality of religion in bearing witness to: the image of persons, the burdens of care, suffering, and the experience of dying. He demonstrates how pluralist religious perspectives can enrich and humanize bioethics even as they nurture the human quest for meaning."
--Thomas R. Cole, McGovern Chair in Medical Humanities

"For three decades, Courtney Campbell has been an important voice in bioethics. In this book, rich with personal and narrative insight, he offers both a critique of and a constructive alternative to dominant trends in medicine and biomedical ethics. Campbell challenges recent efforts in secular bioethics to marginalize religious voices and calls on medicine to renew its vocational commitment to the healing of persons rather than to be understood as simply another career choice."
--Andrew Lustig, Professor of Religion and Science, Davidson College
"In Bearing Witness, Courtney Campbell brings scholarly erudition, seasoned experience in a range of medical cultures, religious commitment, and prophetic insights to bear on theory and practice in bioethics. Drawing on years of teaching, research, and policy analysis, Campbell engages a range of religious and secular thinkers about matters fundamental to bioethics, especially those that concern meaning, suffering, and healing. I highly recommend this thoughtful and well-reasoned book.
--Richard Miller, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor, University of Chicago