BY MORRIE PONGRATZ

Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum will present a lecture by Victoria Erhart on Islamic Bioethics Tuesday evening in the Roxy Movie Theater at SALA. Pizza will be served in the lobby at 6 p.m. with the lecture beginning at 6:30 p.m.

This talk is based on a course on Islamic Bioethics from the Hamad bin Khalifa  Medical College in Qatar. The talk will cover a discussion on Islamic bioethics, with specific reference to how religious authorities and medical authorities in the Middle  East Islamic world construct policies regarding the beginning of human life (a two stage process) and how to determine the end of human life. Time permitting, we can  also discuss the Islamic thinking on euthanasia, assisted reproductive technologies  and abortion = only medically necessary abortion permitted. It is interesting that  there is an Islamic bioethics counsel for Muslims who live outside the Islamic Middle  East = Western Europe, England, North America. The way Muslims medical and  religious authorities determine policies is quite different from the secular West. 

Victoria Erhart completed her undergraduate studies at St. John’s College in Santa  Fe, NM, the “great Books” school. She began graduate school in Hebrew and Jewish  Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, before moving to Toronto to continue  theological studies at St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto. She completed  theological studies with a concentration in Early Christian Studies at The Catholic  University of America in Washington, D.C.

Victoria Erhart has taught World Religions  at a variety of colleges and universities. Her research interests includes Syriac  Christianity, pre-modern military history, sustainable and environmental issues and  the intersection between science and religion.