September 23, 2021
How should we think about the morality of Covid-19 vaccines, given that all of those currently available in the United States benefited in one way or another from a cell line that was derived from an aborted child? How should we think about the morality of government mandates relating to the vaccines, and to businesses that impose their own mandates? How do religious liberty and conscientious objection to the vaccines factor in? This webinar addresses all of these questions, and more, drawing on the extensive expertise of EPPC Fellow Aaron Kheriaty, a medical doctor; EPPC Fellow Roger Severino, a lawyer with expertise on civil liberties and healthcare; and professor Jason Eberl, a philosopher specializing in bioethics. EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson moderates the discussion.
About the Participants
Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., is the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the Founding Editor of Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment and Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom.
Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D., is Professor of Health Care Ethics and Director of the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. His research interests include the philosophy of human nature and its application to issues at the margins of life; ethical issues related to end-of-life care, genetics, and healthcare allocation; and the philosophical thought of Thomas Aquinas.
Aaron Kheriaty, M.D., is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he directs EPPC’s program in Bioethics and American Democracy. He is Professor of Psychiatry at UCI School of Medicine and Director of the Medical Ethics Program at UCI Health. He serves as chairman of the medical ethics committees at UCI Hospital and at the CA Department of State Hospitals.
Roger Severino is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he directs EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project. Before joining EPPC, Mr. Severino was the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OCR), where he led a team of over 250 staff enforcing our nation’s civil rights, conscience and religious freedom, and health information privacy laws. He served from 2017 to 2021 and was the longest serving OCR Director of the past three decades.