02/07/2026 09:00 - 17:10

HALL: Parenzo - A20

Chair: Hammer E.B., Ott T., Wendorff T.

Contact: Hammer E.B.

Questions of equality and inequality have always been crucial to the moral life of communities, shaping how societies understand care, justice, and responsibility. Within the Christian tradition, theological and ethical reflection has profoundly influenced attitudes towards helping, healing, and defining the role of health care practitioners. From the early Church's ministry to the sick, to contemporary debates on global health and biotechnology, Christian values continue to inform and at time challenge prevailing assumptions in bioethics and medical ethics. The relationship between religion and bioethics therefore remains both endured and contested, and merits renewed discussion in light of this year's conference theme, Religions and (In)Equalities.
This panel seeks to explore how Christian bioethics can illuminate and respond to issues of equality and inequality in healthcare and medicine. How can theology contribute to and shape the discourse on distributive justice in a world of limited medical resources, and on structural inequalities that affect access to care and health outcomes? What forms of moral responsibility arise for healthcare professionals, religious institutions, and communities of faith? Finally, what role does spiritual care play within healthcare?
We invite contributions from dogmatic, ethical, historical, and exegetical perspectives that analyse how Christian bioethical thought engages questions of justice, equality, and inequality. Papers may address influential theological figures from the church fathers to contemporary theologians, or they may take a thematic approach to issues such as global health disparities, gender and disability, or the ethics of emerging biotechnologies. By bringing diverse perspectives together, the panel aims to clarify how Christian ethical resources can both expose and help redress inequalities in healthcare today.