I started off this part of the interview by asking Daniel about his own journey through life and faith. His early love was history, despite having a father who was also a doctor and an academic. His interests only turned to medicine after a time in Peru and exposure to brutal poverty, and then like many of us, he drifted into an academic career. Later in life he has been able to return to that original motivation.
Daniel and his wife were brought up in the Seventh Day Adventist faith, and still greatly respects the grounding in charitable work and the Bible he received then. Eventually he and his wife got the Newman bug and had to go deep into history and join one of the apostolic churches; they joined an Eastern Orthodox church.
In that context, Daniel laments the drift of the modern hospice movement away from Christian spiritual roots and into a secular, palliative mindset, and the broader question of what is missing from the often uttered or thought statement, "if it's legal, it must be moral."
"We confuse technological prowess with being deeper and more thoughtful."
An interesting consequence of our medical progress is that we now face a future where, for the first time, across the world, most people will die of conditions derived from aging rather than contagious diseases, accidents, childbirth, etc.
We discuss a bit the golden mean to be found, steering clear of euthanasia on the one hand, and of resorting to excessive means to stay alive in the face of a fatal illness.
Episode 072 - Benjamin Rybicki
Episode 071 - Sonsoles de Lacalle
Episode 070 - Nicanor Austriaco
Episode 069 - Fr. Lawrence Machia OSB and Daniel vanden Berk, part II
Episode 068 - Fr. Lawrence Machia OSB and Daniel vanden Berk, part I
Episode 067 - Maureen Condic, part III
Episode 066 - Maureen Condic, part II
Episode 065 - Maureen Condic, part I
Episode 064 - SCS 2019 Panel, part II
Episode 063 - SCS 2019 Panel, part I
Bonus - Quick Hits - SCS 2019
Episode 062 - Jonathan Lunine SCS Conference Preview
Episode 061 – Preview of SCS Conference 2019
Episode 060 – What Does It Mean To Be Human? (SCS 2019)
Episode 059 – Origin Story: Society of Catholic Scientists
Episode 058 – Let’s Act Like We’re on the Winning Side (Since We Are)
Episode 057 – The Best Thing Out There
Episode 056 - Darcia Narvaez on the (other) tragedy of the commons and moral/economic disengagement in civilized society
Episode 055 - Darcia Narvaez on socialization and isolation
Episode 054 - TSSM Season 2
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