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Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D.

Director; Professor
Department of Health Care Ethics

Education

  • B.A. in philosophy and Spanish from the University of San Diego
  • M.A. in philosophy from Arizona State University
  • Ph.D. in philosophy from ¶¶Òőpro

Research Interests

Beginning-of-life issues, end-of-life care, biotechnology and human enhancement, healthcare allocation, philosophy of human nature, and Thomism.

Publications and Media Placements

Books

  • Eberl, J.T., The Nature of Human Persons: Metaphysics and Bioethics (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020).
  • Eberl, J.T., ed., Contemporary Controversies in Catholic Bioethics (Springer, 2017).
  • Eberl, J.T., The Routledge Guidebook to Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae (Routledge, 2016).
  • Eberl, J.T., Thomistic Principles and Bioethics (Routledge, 2006).

Journal Articles

  • Eberl, J.T., “Who Wants to Live Forever? Transhumanist Immortality and Christian Eternity” Christian Bioethics 31:2 (2025).
  • Brummett, Abram and Eberl, J.T., “The Reasonable Content of Conscience in Public Bioethics” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (2024).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Ontological Chimeras: Human Beings as Rational Animals” Dignitas 30:3 (2023): 10-16.
  • Maldonado, Fabien and Eberl, J.T., “Bearing the Burden of ‘Innovation’: The Ontological Implications of Substantial Equivalence and the FDA 510(k) Pathway” CHEST 163:5 (2023): 1225-1227.
  • Brummett, Abram and Eberl, J.T., “The Many Metaphysical Commitments of Secular Clinical Ethics: Expanding the Argument for a Moral–Metaphysical Proceduralism” Bioethics 36:7 (2022): 783-793.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Disability, Enhancement, and Flourishing” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 47:5 (2022): 597-611.
  • McTavish, James and Eberl, J.T., “Is COVID-19 Vaccination ‘Ordinary’ (Morally Obligatory) Treatment?” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 22:2 (2022): 319-333.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Losing One’s Head or Gaining a New Body?” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 47:2 (2022): 189-209.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Enhancing the Imago Dei: Can a Christian be a Transhumanist?” Christian Bioethics 28:1 (2022): 76-93.
  • Friedrich, Annie B. and Eberl, J.T., “Catholic Perspective on Decision-Making for Critically Ill Newborns and Infants” Children 9:2 (2022).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Are Christians Morally Obligated to Be Vaccinated for COVID-19?” Review and Expositor 119:1-2 (2022): 64-75.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Is There a Moral Obligation to be Vaccinated for COVID-19?” Health Care Ethics USA 30:1 (2022): 33-39.
  • Bishop, Jeffrey P. and Eberl, J.T., “Point: Is It Ethically Permissible to Unilaterally Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatments during Crisis Standards of Care? Yes” CHEST 159:6 (2021): 2165-2166.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Unilateral Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment within Crisis Standards of Care” Health Care Ethics USA 29:1 (2021): 8-10.
  • Redinger, Michael J. and Eberl, J.T., “New Developments in End-of-Life Teaching for Roman Catholic Healthcare: The Implications of Samaritanus Bonus (“The Good Samaritan”)” American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine 39:5 (2021): 501-503.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Visions of the Common Good: Engelhardt’s Engagement with Catholic Social Teaching” Christian Bioethics 27:1 (2021): 30-49.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Surviving Corruptionist Arguments: Response to Nevitt” Quaestiones Disputatae 10:2 (2020): 145-160.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Addressing Vulnerability Due to Cognitive Impairment through Catholic Social Teaching” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 20:2 (2020): 243-250.
  • Sullivan, William F. 
 Participants of the Ninth IACB International Colloquium, “Promoting Capabilities to MakeHealthcare Decisions” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 20:2 (2020): 355-371.
  • The COVID-19 Task Force of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors (ABPD), “Ethical Challenges Arising in the COVID-19 Pandemic” American Journal of Bioethics 20:7 (2020): 15-27.
  • Antommaria, Armand H. Matheny 
 Eberl, J.T., “Ventilator Triage Policies During the COVID-19 Pandemic at US Hospitals Associated with Members of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors” Annals of Internal Medicine (2020): DOI: 10.7326/M20-1738.
  • Eberl, J.T. and Donovan, G. Kevin, “Is It Ethical to Unilaterally Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatment in Triage Circumstances?” Health Progress 101:2 (2020).
  • Eberl, J.T. and Ostertag, Christopher, “Conscientious Refusals in Health Care” Health Care Ethics USA 28:1 (2020): 7-11.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Protecting Reasonable Conscientious Refusals in Health Care” Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 40:6 (2019): 565-581.
  • Eberl, J.T., “A Bioethical Vision” Journal of Catholic Social Thought 16:2 (2019): 279-293.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Can Prudence Be Enhanced?” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 43:5 (2018): 506-526.
  • Eberl, J.T., “I Am My Brother’s Keeper: Communitarian Obligations to the Dying Person” Christian Bioethics 24:1 (2018): 38-58.
  • Winright, Tobias, Eberl, J.T., and Coleman, Gerald, “Moral Lessons from the Life of Alfie Evans: Two Ethical Perspectives” Health Care Ethics USA 26:3 (2018): 1-11.
  • Eberl, J.T. and Ostertag, Christopher, “Conscience, Compromise, and Complicity” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 92 (2018).
  • Eberl, J.T., “The Ontological and Moral Significance of Persons” Scientia et Fides 5:2 (2017): 217-36.
  • Waters, Nicole P., Schmale, Trenton, Goetz, Allison, Eberl, J.T., and Wells, Jessica H. “A Call to Promote Healthcare Justice: A Summary of Integrated Outpatient Clinics Exemplifying Principles of Catholic Social Teaching” The Linacre Quarterly 84:1 (2017): 57-73.
  • Eberl, J.T., “A Thomistic Defense of Whole-Brain Death” The Linacre Quarterly 82:3 (2015): 235-250.
  • Eberl, J.T., “A Thomistic Appraisal of Human Enhancement Technologies” Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 35:4 (2014): 289-310.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Religious and Secular Perspectives on the Value of Suffering” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 12:2 (2012): 251-261.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Metaphysical and Moral Status of Cryopreserved Embryos” The Linacre Quarterly 79:3 (2012): 304-315.
  • Eberl, J.T., Kinney, Eleanor K., and Williams, Matthew J., “Foundation for a Natural Right to Health Care” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 36:6 (2011): 537-57.
  • Eberl, J.T., “The Unactualized Potential of PVS Patients” APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Medicine 11:1 (2011): 14-18.
  • Eberl, J.T., “‘I, Clone’: How Cloning is (Mis)portrayed in Contemporary Cinema” Film and History 40:2 (2010): 27-44.
  • Eberl, J.T., “What Dignitas personae Does Not Say” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10:1 (2010): 89-110.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Varieties of Dualism: Swinburne and Aquinas” International Philosophical Quarterly 50:1 (2010): 39-56.
  • Eberl, J.T. and Ballard, Rebecca A., “Metaphysical and Ethical Perspectives on Creating Animal-Human Chimeras”The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 34:5 (2009): 470-486.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Ambiguities and Inconsistencies among the Opinions of the AMA Code of Medical Ethics” APANewsletter on Philosophy and Medicine 8:2 (2009): 4-6.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Potentiality, Possibility, and the Irreversibility of Death” The Review of Metaphysics 62:1 (2008): 61-77.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Cultivating the Virtue of Acknowledged Responsibility” Proceedings of the American CatholicPhilosophical Association 82 (2008): 249-61.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Dualist and Animalist Perspectives on Death: A Comparison with Aquinas” The National CatholicBioethics Quarterly 7:3 (2007): 477-489.
  • Eberl, J.T., “A Thomistic Perspective on the Beginning of Personhood: Redux” Bioethics 21:5 (2007): 283-289.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Pomponazzi and Aquinas on the Intellective Soul” The Modern Schoolman 83:1 (2005): 65-77.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Extraordinary Care and the Spiritual Goal of Life: A Defense of the View of Kevin O’Rourke, O.P.” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 5:3 (2005): 491-501.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Aquinas’s Account of Human Embryogenesis and Recent Interpretations” The Journal of Medicine andPhilosophy 30:4 (2005): 379-394.
  • Eberl, J.T., “A Thomistic Understanding of Human Death” Bioethics 19:1 (2005): 29-48.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Aquinas on the Nature of Human Beings” The Review of Metaphysics 58:2 (2004): 333-365.
  • Eberl, J.T., “Aquinas on Euthanasia, Suffering, and Palliative Care” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 3:2(2003): 331-354.
  • Eberl, J.T., “The Metaphysics of Resurrection: Issues of Identity in Thomas Aquinas” Proceedings of the AmericanCatholic Philosophical Association 74 (2000): 215-30.
  • Eberl, J.T., “The Beginning of Personhood: A Thomistic Biological Analysis” Bioethics 14:2 (2000): 134-157.

Book Chapters

  • Eberl, J.T., and Bedford, Elliott, “Managing Spiritual Issues in Religiously Affiliated Health Systems” Medical Professionalism: Theory, Education, and Practice, ed. Thomas D. Harter and Gia Merlo (Oxford University Press, 2024).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Dignity and Vulnerability at the End of Life: Reflections on Samaritanus bonus” Cuerpos Vulnerables, ed. Luca Valera (Universidad de Chile, 2024).
  • Eberl, J.T., and Romero, Miguel, “The Tree of Life: Aquinas, Disability, and Transhumanism” Bioenhancement Technologies and the Vulnerable Body, ed. Devan Stahl (Baylor University Press, 2023).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Does Enhancement Violate Human ‘Nature’?” The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Human Enhancement, ed. Fabrice Jotterand and Marcello Ienca (Routledge, 2023).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Enhancement Technologies and Children” Pediatric Ethics: Theory and Practice, ed. Nico NortjĂ© and Johan Bester (Springer, 2022).
  • Eberl, J.T., “A Bioethical Vision” Pope Francis: A Voice for Mercy, Justice, Love, and Care for the Earth, ed. Barbara E. Wall and Massimo Faggioli (Orbis, 2019).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Philosophical Anthropology, Ethics, and Human Enhancement” Contemporary Controversies in Catholic Bioethics, ed. Jason T. Eberl (Springer, 2017).
  • Eberl, J.T., “A Thomistic Appraisal of Human Enhancement Technologies” Thomas Aquinas: Teacher of Humanity,ed. John P. Hittinger and Daniel C. Wagner (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Persons with Potential” Potentiality: Metaphysical and Bioethical Dimensions, ed. John P. Lizza (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014).
  • Eberl, J.T., “There are No Circumstances in which a Doctor May Withhold Information” Contemporary Debates inBioethics, ed. Arthur L. Caplan and Robert Arp (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Ontological Status of Whole-Brain Dead Individuals” The Ethics of Organ Transplantation, ed. StevenJensen (Catholic University of America Press, 2011).
  • Eberl, J.T. and Brown, Brandon P., “Brain Life and the Argument from Potential: Affirming the Ontological Status of Human Embryos and Fetuses” Persons, Moral Worth, and Embryos: A Critical Analysis of Pro-Choice Arguments, ed. Stephen Napier (Springer, 2011).
  • Eberl, J.T., “The Necessity of Lex aeterna in Aquinas’s Account of Lex naturalis” Lex and Ius: Essays on the Foundation of Law in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy, ed. Alexander Fidora, Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, and Andreas Wagner (Frommann-Holzboog, 2010).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Thomism and the Beginning of Personhood” Defining the Beginning and End of Life: Readings onPersonal Identity and Bioethics, ed. John P. Lizza (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2009).
  • Eberl, J.T., “Do Human Persons Persist between Death and Resurrection?” Metaphysics and God: Essays in Honor of Eleonore Stump, ed. Kevin Timpe (Routledge, 2009).
  • Eberl, J.T. and Helft, Paul R., “Donner un organe: Le modĂšle amĂ©ricain” (Organ Donation: The American Model), trans. Jason Dean, Donner, recevoir un organe, ed. Marie-Jo Thiel (Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg,2009).
  • Eberl, J.T., “La notion de souffrance et son rĂŽle dans la dĂ©finition des soins extraordinaires” (Understanding Suffering and Its Role in Defining Extraordinary Care), trans. Jason Dean, Les rites autour du mourir, ed. Marie-Jo Thiel (Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2008).
  • Brown, Brandon P. and Eberl, J.T., “Ethical Considerations in Defense of Embryo Adoption” The Ethics of EmbryoAdoption and the Catholic Tradition, ed. Sarah-Vaughan Brakman and Darlene F. Weaver (Springer, 2007).
  • Meslin, Eric M., Salmon, Karen R., Eberl, J.T., “Eligibility for Organ Transplantation by Foreign Nationals: TheRelationship between Citizenship, Justice, and Philanthropy as Policy Criteria,” A Death Retold: JesicaSantillan, the Bungled Transplant, and Paradoxes of Medical Citizenship, ed. Keith Wailoo, Julie Livingston, and Peter Guarnaccia (University of North Carolina Press, 2006).

Media Placements

  • “Disagreeing Well” – Conflict Managed Podcast.
  • “Christianity, Transhumanism, and Popular Culture” – AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast.
  • “A.I. and Personhood, Part 2” – The Episcopal Podcast.
  • “A.I. and Personhood, Part 1” – The Episcopal Podcast.
  • “Transhumanism” – The Episcopal Podcast.
  • “Aggressive End-of-Life Care Remains Common, Especially in Nursing Homes” – Medical Ethics Advisor 39:4 (April 2023).
  • “‘Human Composting’ Debate: A Deeper Dive into the Catholic Teaching on the Dignity of Human Remains” – National Catholic Register.
  • “Conscientious Refusals to Provide Morally Contested Healthcare Services by Healthcare Professionals.” ProfessionalFormation.org – Healthcare Professionalism: Education, Research, and Resources.
  • “Why Experts are Skeptical of Elon Musk’s Brain Implants.” Healthline.com.
  • “Catholic Teaching on Health Care Is Part of God’s Gift of Love to the World.” National Catholic Register.
  • “Catholic Moral Tradition Shines Light on Hard Questions ¶¶Òőpro Abortion.” National Catholic Register.
  • “Pandemic, Abortion Ruling Bring Ethical Issues to Forefront.” Catholic Health World. 
  • “When HIV Stigma and Conscientious Objection Collide.” Medscape.
  • “The Catholic Church Is Dictating Reproductive Health Care — Even in Blue States.” Salon.com.
  • “Ethics of Vaccine Mandates.” Newsweek Debates Podcast. [https://art19.com/shows/the-debate/episodes/be235edf-7d55-42a8-9c1c-feb52b1e5a3f]
  • “Critical Dialogue on Vaccine Mandates.” National Catholic Bioethics Center “Bioethics on Air” series.
  • Part 1:
  • Part 2:
  • Part 3:
  • “Doubters and Dodgers Push for Vaccine Exemptions.”
  • “Some Catholic Colleges Forgo Vaccine Mandates, Worrying Public Health Experts” National Catholic Reporter.
  • “Possible Brain Death Law Changes Pose Ethical Concerns” National Catholic Reporter.
  • “Unmasking the Vaccines: What Does the Church Teach?” Salt + Light Television “Ethics and Pandemics” Series.
  • “Ethicist says COVID vaccine plans align with Catholic teachings,” Catholic Health World.
  • “Catholics Must Weigh Ethical Considerations in the Development of COVID-19 Vaccine,” St. Louis Review. [https://www.archstl.org/catholics-must-weigh-ethical-considerations-in-the-development-of-covid19-vaccine-5968]
  • “Bioethics Must ‘Break Out’ of Ivory Tower and Engage Society, Academic Says,” CRUX.
  • “An ‘Ethical Failure’ — Many Hospitals Rushed to Update Triage Policies As Pandemic Loomed,” Saint Louis Public Radio 90.7 KWMU.
  • “COVID-19: Prepare for Care-Rationing—Know Your Hospital Policies,” Neurology Today.
  • “Catholic Hospitals Come under Fire in Debate over Conscience Rights,” CRUX. [https://cruxnow.com/interviews/2018/08/28/catholic-hospitals-come-under-fire-in-debate-over-conscience-rights/]
  • “Death Talk is Cool at this Festival,” National Public Radio.
  • “Good Doctor-Good Catholic: The Influence of Faith in Medical Care,” Catholic Radio Indianapolis 89.1/90.9. [https://podcast.catholicradioindy.org/e/the-faith-filled-physician-good-doctor-good-catholic-the-influence-of-faith-in-medical-care-with-fr-ryan-mccarthy-and-jason-eberl-phd/]

Professional Organizations and Associations

  • American Catholic Philosophical Association
  • American Philosophical Association
  • American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
  • Association of Bioethics Program Directors
  • Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
  • Catholic Health Association
  • Catholic Theological Society of America
  • Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
  • International Association of Bioethics
  • International Association of Catholic Bioethics
  • International Association for Education in Ethics
  • National Catholic Bioethics Center
  • Society of Christian Ethics
  • Society of Christian Philosophers