Associate
Professor
M. Therese Lysaught [Ph.D., Theological Ethics, Duke University, 1992; M.A., Theology, University of Notre Dame, 1986], specializes in the areas of moral theology and theological reflection on science, biotechnology, and medicine (a field sometimes known as ‘bioethics’). She has served as an NIH/ELSI Fellow at the University of Iowa, working in the lab of geneticist Dr. Jeff Murray, a lab involved in the work of the Human Genome Project. Subsequently, she served a three-year appointment on the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) of the National Institutes of Health.
Her major research foci have included the anointing of the sick, genetics, gene therapy, human embryonic stem cell research, and issues at the end-of-life. Two methodological commitments are central to her work. The first is a commitment to the liturgical context for the moral life. The second, emerging from her work with Haiti, is a commitment to overcoming the traditional separation of the fields of bioethics and social ethics, especially within Christian theological ethics.
Her first co-edited book, Gathered for the Journey: Moral Theology in Catholic Perspective (Eerdmans 2007, co-editor David M. McCarthy) provides an introduction to Catholic moral theology. In 2008, the book received third place honors in ‘Theology’ from the Catholic Press Association.
She is currently at work on two book projects. The first is the revision for the third edition of the major anthology of theology and medical ethics, On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives on Medical Ethics (Eerdmans, 2009), which she is co-editing with Joseph Kotva. The second is a monograph on the practice of anointing of the sick, arguing that it provides a hermeneutic for developing, instead of ‘bioethics,’ what might be called a Christian politics of medicine.
She has authored over 40 articles and book chapters, in places such as in Christian Bioethics, Health Progress, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, Christian Scholars’ Review, the Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Commonweal, and US Catholic. In addition to almost 50 invited lectures and papers, she has presented papers at the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, the College Theology Society, the Society of Christian Ethics, the American Academy of Religion, and the American Society of Law and Medicine. Since 2000, she has served as the co-convener of the Liturgy and Ethics Interest Group at the Society of Christian Ethics. She works in a number of advisory capacities with the Catholic Health Association, and is currently the chair of the board of The Ekklesia Project. She has served as a member of the advisory boards for the Program of Dialogue Between Science, Religion, and Ethics at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); and the Interfaith Health Resources Center at the Carter Center. In 2008, she was appointed to the U.S. Catholic-Episcopal Theological Consultation under the aegis of the USCCB.
Curriculum Vitae
Teaching Fields
- Theological Ethics
- Catholic Moral Theology
- Health Care Ethics
Office
Location & Contact
Office
Hours
Teaching
Schedule
Fall 2008
- M 1:00-2:15
- W 9:00-11:40, 1:00-2:15
