Bio-Ethics / Pro-Life
Bioethics and the Christian Worldview
Bioethics applies moral reasoning to questions involving medicine, biology, human life, and emerging technologies. For Christians, these questions cannot be answered merely by asking what is medically possible, legally permissible, or culturally acceptable. They must also be examined in light of God’s revelation, the nature and dignity of human beings, and the authority of Scripture.
A biblical approach to bioethics begins with the conviction that human beings are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Human life therefore possesses inherent value that does not depend upon age, ability, health, independence, intelligence, or social usefulness.
This biblical foundation has implications for questions surrounding abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, embryonic research, reproductive technologies, genetic engineering, medical conscience, organ transplantation, disability, and the treatment of vulnerable human beings.
Christian bioethics also requires careful thinking. Scientific facts matter, but scientific facts alone do not determine moral conclusions. Questions of human dignity, personhood, moral obligation, justice, and the proper use of medical technology involve philosophical and ethical reasoning as well as scientific knowledge.
The organizations below provide resources for Christians and others seeking to understand and defend a biblical or pro-life approach to bioethical questions.
Christian Bioethics Organizations
Biblical Medical Ethics, Inc.
Biblical Medical Ethics, founded by Dr. Ed Payne, exists to promote medical ethics rooted in biblical truth. Its resources include the Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine, which was published from 1987 through 1994 and remains available online as a historical resource for studying Christian medical ethics.
The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity is a Christian academic research center devoted to biblically informed and theologically rich research concerning medicine, science, technology, and human dignity. CBHD provides articles, books, conferences, podcasts, and other resources addressing complex bioethical questions. In 2026, CBHD relocated to LeTourneau University.
Christian Medical & Dental Associations
CMDA equips Christian healthcare professionals to apply biblical principles to medicine and public policy. Its bioethics resources address issues including abortion, end-of-life care, assisted suicide, reproductive medicine, human dignity, conscience rights, and other contemporary medical questions. CMDA also provides ethics statements and an ethics hotline for Christian healthcare professionals.
Bioethics Defense Fund
Bioethics Defense Fund is a pro-life legal and educational organization working to defend human life through litigation, model legislation, education, and public policy. Its work addresses abortion, human cloning, embryo research, end-of-life issues, and healthcare conscience rights. BDF approaches bioethical questions through legal, scientific, philosophical, and natural-law reasoning.
Life Training Institute
Life Training Institute equips Christians and pro-life advocates to make a persuasive case for the dignity of unborn human life. Its training draws upon science and philosophy and emphasizes clear, logical, and accessible pro-life apologetics. LTI provides presentations and resources for Christian schools, universities, churches, conferences, and pregnancy resource centers.
Pro-Life Medical and Scientific Resources
American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists
AAPLOG is a professional organization of pro-life medical professionals providing medical and scientific information concerning abortion and women’s health. It also advocates for the ability of healthcare professionals to practice medicine consistent with the Hippocratic tradition. AAPLOG is not specifically Christian, but its medical and scientific resources can be useful when evaluating bioethical questions from a pro-life perspective.
Live Action
Live Action is a pro-life organization focused on abortion, human rights, and the dignity of unborn children. Its educational and investigative resources address abortion, prenatal development, reproductive medicine, and related life issues. Its news operation also covers broader bioethical questions, including assisted suicide and other threats to human life.
Pro-Life Law, Policy, and Public Advocacy
Americans United for Life
Americans United for Life works in law, public policy, and advocacy to protect human life and promote legal protections for vulnerable human beings. Its resources include state-by-state information, legislative analysis, policy materials, and legal resources concerning abortion and other life issues.
National Right to Life
National Right to Life is a longstanding pro-life organization focused on legislation, education, and grassroots advocacy. Its work addresses abortion as well as infanticide, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and other threats to human life.
Foundation to Abolish Abortion
The Foundation to Abolish Abortion advocates for equal protection under the law for preborn human beings. It produces research, model legislation, educational resources, and policy materials and works with legislators and advocates seeking the legal abolition of abortion. The organization explicitly grounds its mission in the image of God and describes its educational work as equipping Christians to pursue the abolition of abortion.
Bioethics Defense Fund
Bioethics Defense Fund also belongs in this category because of its extensive work in legislation, litigation, and public policy. Its approach combines legal, scientific, medical, and philosophical arguments concerning the protection of human life.
Pro-Life Activism and Community Outreach
Abolish Human Abortion
Abolish Human Abortion is a Christian abolitionist movement that seeks to bring the gospel and a biblical understanding of human dignity into the abortion debate. Its resources emphasize the image of God, the humanity of the unborn, abolitionist principles, and Christian activism.
Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is a Christian pro-life activist organization that uses investigation, public advocacy, and other forms of activism to expose abortion-related practices and advocate for the protection of unborn children. Its history includes a major role in the civil-disobedience movement of the late twentieth century.
Operation Save America
Operation Save America is a Christian pro-life organization that explicitly grounds its work in Scripture and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It emphasizes prayer, repentance, public witness, activism, and the abolition of abortion.
Pro-Life Action League
The Pro-Life Action League equips Christians and other pro-life advocates to become active in their communities. Its resources include educational materials, prayer vigils, public demonstrations, and practical instruction for communicating the pro-life position.
The Survivors
The Survivors is a Christian youth-based pro-life activism and apologetics ministry. It trains high school and college-age students through its ProLife BootCamp and other programs, combining pro-life apologetics, evangelism, public advocacy, campus outreach, and practical activism.
Christian Healthcare and Stewardship
Samaritan Ministries
Samaritan Ministries is a Christian health-care sharing ministry rather than a dedicated bioethics or pro-life advocacy organization. It provides a biblical alternative to conventional health insurance through a member-to-member medical cost-sharing model. It is included here because questions about healthcare, Christian stewardship, and the responsibilities of believers toward one another are important areas of applied Christian ethics.
Understanding Bioethics from a Christian Worldview
Bioethical questions often expose deeper disagreements about worldview.
At the heart of many debates is the question, What is a human being? If human beings are merely biological organisms produced by natural processes, human value may ultimately be defined according to characteristics such as consciousness, autonomy, intelligence, or social usefulness. But if human beings are created in the image of God, then human worth is intrinsic rather than earned.
This distinction has enormous consequences.
An unborn child does not become valuable because someone wants the child. A disabled person does not become valuable because he or she can contribute to society. An elderly person does not lose value because he or she is dependent upon others. Human dignity rests in what a person is (we are all made imago dei — in the image of God), not merely in what that person can do.
A Christian approach to bioethics therefore begins with biblical anthropology and then carefully considers the relevant scientific, philosophical, medical, and legal evidence.
Major Bioethical Questions
Christian bioethics includes far more than abortion. Important areas of study include:
- Abortion and the humanity of the unborn
- Embryonic stem-cell research
- In-vitro fertilization and reproductive technology
- Surrogacy
- Human cloning
- Genetic engineering
- Gene editing
- Prenatal testing
- Disability and human dignity
- Euthanasia
- Physician-assisted suicide
- End-of-life decisions
- Organ transplantation
- Medical conscience rights
- Sexual ethics and reproductive medicine
- Gender and medical ethics
- Human experimentation
- Artificial intelligence and medicine
- Healthcare rationing
- Healthcare stewardship
- Medical definitions of death
- The relationship between law, medicine, and morality
A Biblical Foundation for Bioethics
Several foundational biblical principles should guide Christian thinking about bioethical questions:
Human beings are created in God’s image.
Genesis 1:26-27
Human life belongs to God.
Psalm 24:1
God knows human beings before birth.
Psalm 139:13-16
God is the giver and sustainer of life.
Job 1:21; Acts 17:25
The unborn child is treated as a human life in Scripture.
Luke 1:39-45
God commands the protection of innocent human life.
Exodus 20:13; Proverbs 24:11-12
Christians are called to defend the weak and vulnerable.
Psalm 82:3-4; Proverbs 31:8-9
The body belongs to God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Human beings must answer to God for how they use their knowledge and abilities.
Romans 1:20-22; 1 Corinthians 10:31
Studying Bioethics as a Christian
A mature Christian approach to bioethics should resist two opposite errors.
The first is technological optimism, the assumption that because medicine or science can do something, therefore it ought to be done.
The second is technological fear, the assumption that every new medical development is necessarily wrong.
Instead, Christians should ask careful questions:
What is true?
What is a human being?
What does Scripture reveal about human dignity and moral responsibility?
What moral assumptions are being made?
Does this medical practice respect the image of God?
Does it protect or exploit vulnerable human beings?
What authority is being used to determine right and wrong?
What are the likely consequences?
Does the proposed solution treat human beings as persons or merely as biological material?
Bioethics therefore provides an important opportunity for Christians to demonstrate that biblical Christianity offers a coherent understanding of human dignity, moral responsibility, justice, compassion, and the proper use of human knowledge.