Reckoning with Our Humanity: How Chronic Illness and Disability Tell Us Who We Are

Chronic illness and disability can be transformative experiences within the human lifespan. Yet, these experiences can also reveal taken-for-granted norms concerning what it means to be human: What does it mean to have a “normal” or “healthy” body? What do we need to flourish? What is most essential about us? Who are we in relation to others? Such questions contain ontological (what is the nature of being?) and ethical (what should we do?) dimensions. In their own ways, both medicine and theology provide answers to these questions through systems of belief and practice.

In this presentation, Dr. Devan Stahl will explore how medicine and theology have shaped contemporary interpretations of disability and chronic illness and how the field of theological bioethics brings these conversations together. Drawing on her experience as a clinical ethicist and theologian, Devan will explore how disability is understood and addressed within healthcare organizations and congregations, and how these institutions shape our beliefs about what it means to be human.

Dr. Quentin Genuis, an emergency physician at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and a physician ethicist, will provide a response.