Emerging Perspectives in Pastoral Theology and Care Children, Theology, Bioethics

When it comes to children, bioethics has primarily focused on one thing: their lack of autonomy. Through theological insight into vulnerability, dependence, and agency, Jessica Bratt Carle, a pediatric chaplain and clinical ethicist, invites readers to attune and respond more fully to children in the moral landscape of healthcare. Children remain at the periphery when bioethics envisions autonomous adults as normative human beings. Children, Theology, and Bioethics: Beyond Autonomy explores the full humanity of children, inviting greater recognition of their place in the moral landscape of healthcare. Theological insights into vulnerability, dependence, and agency summon appreciation for the experiences of pediatric patients and reveal what it means to be human at every age. Interdisciplinary dialogue between bioethics, childhood studies, and pastoral theology is woven throughout with illustrative clinical vignettes from Bratt Carle’s experience as a pediatric chaplain and clinical ethicist.